Experts from the Yale Child Study Center discuss the social stigmas of living with Tourette's syndrome. (Source: NYT > Health)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

Neuropediatrics 2009; 40: 239-242DOI: 10.1055/s-0030-1247519AbstractA 16- year-old boy with long-standing severe Tourette syndrome (TS) and mental retardation, non-responsive to complex pharmocological and behavioural treatment was selected for bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the globus pallidus internus (GPi). Pre-operative and post-operative Yale Tourette syndrome scale (YTSS) scores and several other scores were used to quantify the effect of DBS up to one year follow-up. Although subscores of the YTSS improved, the overall outcome of chronic GPi-DBS showed no substantial therapeutic effect. This finding is in contrast to markedly improved TS of the only two adolescent TS patients in whom DBS has been performed so far. In this article we discuss possible reasons for the poor t...

New Insights Into Diagnosis, Comorbidities, and Treatment Approaches (Source: Psychiatric Times)

Psychosurgery is making a comeback. Recently published case series have shown encouraging results of so-called deep brain stimulation (DBS) in treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressive disorders, and Tourette syndrome. In the current issue of Deutsches �rzteblatt International, authors Jens Kuhn (University of Cologne) and Theo P J Gründer (Max Planck Institute, Cologne) and their co-authors provide an introduction to the method (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2010; 107(7)105-13)... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

Psychosurgery is making a comeback. Recently published case series have shown encouraging results of so-called deep brain stimulation (DBS) in treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressive disorders, and Tourette syndrome... (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard’s 1825 ‘Study of several involuntary functions of the apparatus of movement, gripping, and voice’ discusses 10 individuals with uncontrolled movements but no other significant impairments. Thus, otherwise normal people move in inappropriate ways against their better judgement. Although the study contains the first clinical description of Tourette Syndrome, it has received little attention beyond that notice. Examined in its entirety and in its cultural context, Itard’s study characterizes patients’ movements in terms of the will, propriety, animals and gender. Lacking control over their movements, the individuals are underdeveloped humans. Accordingly, sufferers’ facial expression, bodily movements and unplanned vocalizations rend...MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

(Deutsches Aerzteblatt International) Psychosurgery is making a comeback. Recently published case series have shown encouraging results of so-called deep brain stimulation in treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressive disorders, and Tourette syndrome. In the current issue of Deutsches Aerzteblatt International, authors Jens Kuhn and Theo P. J. Gruender and their co-authors provide an introduction to the method. (Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science)

Conclusions Conclusions: Frontostriatal activity is increased in persons with Tourette syndrome during the inhibition of eye blinks. Activation of frontostriatal circuits in this population may help to maintain regulatory control over semi-involuntary behaviors, whether these are tics or eye blinks. (Source: Am J Psychiatry)

CONCLUSIONS: Elevated expression of MCP-1 and IL-2 supports the possibility of chronic inflammatory processes in the basal ganglia. Replication of elevated expression of PTPR-N in TS specimen suggests that pathway(s) involving this molecule may be important in TS pathogenesis. PMID: 20193755 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity)

CONCLUSIONS: The improvement of time processing in children with TS-only seems specific for the over-second range of intervals, consistent with an enhancement in the 'cognitively controlled' timing system, which mainly processes longer duration intervals, and depends upon dysfunctional connectivity between the basal ganglia and the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex. The absence of between-group differences on time comparison, moreover, suggests that TS patients manifest a selective improvement of 'motor' timing abilities, rather than of perceptual time abilities. Our data also support an enhancement of cognitive control processes in TS children, probably facilitated by effortful tic suppression. PMID: 20189281 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Brain and Cognition)

Strategies for Treatment-Resistant OCD in Pediatric PatientsStudy: Use of Antipsychotics Climbs in Privately Insured PreschoolersCommentary: Treatment-Resistant Pediatric OCDLisdexamfetamine-Associated Reductions in GrowthOmega-3 Fish Oils May Reduce Psychotic Risk in Teens and AdultsMethylphenidate Effects on Sleep in ChildrenIloperidone (Fanapt) Now Available in U.S.Tourette's Syndrome in a Boy With Bipolar DisorderOlanzapine (Zyprexa) Warnings for Adolescent UseDrug Safety Labeling Changes (Source: The Brown University Child & Adolescent Psychopharmacology Update)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

(Source: Neurology)

Conclusion: DBS in the ALIC-NA failed to effectively address mild vocal and motor tics in a patient with TS and severe comorbid OCD. PMID: 20178034 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Neurocase)

Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology Feb 2010, Vol. 20, No. 1: 71-73. (Source: Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology)

Dr. Robert King and Dr. James Leckman from the Yale Child Study Center discuss treatments for Tourette's syndrome. (Source: NYT > Health)

Gilles de la Tourette syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder in which cortical disinhibition has been proposed as a pathophysiological mechanism involved in the generation of tics. Tics are typically reduced during task performance and concentration. How this task-dependent reduction of motor symptoms is represented in the brain is not yet understood. The aim of the current research was to study motorcortical excitability at rest and during the preparation of a simple motor task. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to examine corticospinal excitability, short-interval intracortical inhibition and intracortical facilitation in a group of 11 patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and age-matched healthy controls. Parameters of cortical excitability were evaluated at rest and at...MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

The fronto-striato-thalamic circuit has been implicated in the pathomechanism of Tourette Syndrome (TS). To study white and gray matter comprehensively, we used a novel technique called Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) combined with voxel-based analysis (VBA) of diffusion tensor MR images in children with TS as compared to typically developing controls. These automated and unbiased methods allow analysis of cerebral white matter and gray matter regions. We compared 15 right-handed children with TS (mean age: 11.6 ± 2.5 years, 12 males) to 14 age-matched right-handed healthy controls (NC; mean age: 12.29 ± 3.2 years, 6 males). Tic severity and neurobehavioral scores were correlated with FA and ADC values in regions found abnormal by these methods. For white matter, TBSS analysis show...

The vesicular neurotransmitter transporter VMAT2 is responsible for the transport of monoamines into synaptic and storage vesicles. VMAT2 is the target of many psychoactive drugs and is essential for proper neurotransmission and survival. Here we describe a new expression system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that takes advantage of the polyspecificity of VMAT2. Expression of rVMAT2 confers resistance to acriflavine and to the parkinsonian toxin 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) by their removal into the yeast vacuole. This expression system allowed identification of a new substrate, acriflavine, and isolation of mutants with modified affinity to tetrabenazine (TBZ), a non-competitive inhibitor of VMAT2 that is used in the treatment of various movement disorders including Tourette syndrome a...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of subtle structural abnormalities in the midbrain of patients with TS. High-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (1.5- and 3-T) was used in 23 patients with TS and in 20 age- and sex-matched normal control subjects. Tics symptoms were rated using the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale and comorbid neuropsychiatric disorders were evaluated with standardised psychiatric rating scales. MRI scans revealed subtle structural abnormalities consistent with expanded perivascular spaces (EPVS) in the substantia nigra (compacta and reticulata) and neighbouring nuclei in 6 (26%) patients with TS, but in none of the normal control subjects (P = 0.045). Stereotyped movements were more frequent (P = 0.017) amongst TS patien...

Background: The effectiveness of malaria chemoprophylaxis is limited by the lack of compliance whose determinants are not well known. Methods: The compliance with malaria chemoprophylaxis has been estimated and analysed by validated questionnaires administered before and after the short-term missions (about four months) in five tropical African countries of 2,093 French soldiers from 19 military companies involved in a prospective cohort study. "Correct compliance" was defined as "no missed doses" of daily drug intake during the entire mission and was analysed using multiple mixed-effect logistic regression model. Results: The averaged prevalence rate of correct compliance was 46.2%, ranging from 9.6%to 76.6% according to the companies. Incorrect compliance was significantly associated wit...