The Tourettes Action Research Blog
Tourettes Action Honourary Medical Director and neurologist Dr Jeremy Stern posts his thoughts on the latest thinking in the world of Tourette Syndrome research.
Drugs, Sleep and Sensory stimulation
Tourettes action
PrintFirst a bit of good news. Many children and adults are prescribed dopamine-blocking neuroleptic drugs for their tics. The same drugs are used for psychosis although there is not a clinical link between psychotic conditions and TS.
Psychosocial research, Intrusive thoughts and Dental treatments
We have had a long summer gap, unfortunately not due to extended holidays. Over 40 new papers on Tourette syndrome have been published since July alone. Although many are good, there is no major advance and not many topics that have not been discussed in one way or another in previous blog entries.
Rage at Trousseau's syndrome
In this post, a topic request. Children with Tourette's who experience "rages" or "intermittent explosive disorder" are of great concern to parents, but of the thousands of medical publications on TS less than 10 focus primarily on this issue. Most are not very recent.
Aripiprazole, genes, PANDAS, neurosurgery
PANDAS
Firstly, some PANDAS (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21411742). This study looked at the antibodies that that can be found in the blood and bind to the brain in PANDAS, in 25% of TS and also in the original long-described autoimmune neuropsychiatric condition triggered off by streptococcus, Sydenham's chorea ("St. Vitus's dance").
A diet for ADHD (?) and gene expression in TS
For obvious reasons it's worth following developments in areas related to TS, for instance ADHD or OCD. So this month here is another interesting paper on ADHD and how diet may affect it.
Measuring Tourette's
Measurement is important because hard numbers can prove things that vague impressions cannot. Measuring the severity of TS is notoriously difficult for a variety of reasons. First, the tics are very variable, even from hour to hour in some people. They also vary over longer time-frames (the famous "waxing and waning").
ADHD splash and autoantibodies
ADHD was in the news the week before last- the reason? A study of copy number variants (CNV) in the genes of children with the condition.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2961109-9/abstract
Tourettes: IQ and weight
This month, examples of two very different biological variables in people with TS.
Measurement of intelligence is full of pitfalls and can stir controversy. The problem with intelligence is what is it and how can we measure this proposed innate property without actually measuring other things like education and social background which are far from innate.
One for children, one for adults, one for both
1) We are all concerned about potential side effects of medications for tics, especially in children. I am always on the look out for "real world" pragmatic data that can help us make rational choices about medication and tell us how effective it is likely to be - drug trials lasting only weeks or months have a habit of overestimating the value of individual medications.
Somewhere over the rainbow....
Those following the story will know that chasing the genes that cause Tourette syndrome can seem like the quest for the end of an apparently very visible rainbow.
This week there is more of the same with three new findings, one of which has been published by the Yale group in one of the most prestigious medical journals, the New England Journal of Medicine.
Welcome to 2010: Quality of life and chasing the basal ganglia with MRI
There has been a gap in the blog, so here are some recent studies to help catch up.
1) Quality of life in TS
There has been increasing interest in trying to assess the 'quality of life' experienced by people with TS and their families- because measuring the severity of tics or other aspects like ADHD or OCD may not tell the whole story.
Genetic Progress: slow but sure?
For an introduction to TS genetics see the first blog post from New York.
Many diseases including movement disorders have been found to be caused by mutations in single genes, for instance Huntington's disease and rare types of young-onset Parkinson's disease.
More Strep, DBS and Swedish epidemiology
1) Streptococcal infections and neuropsychiatric disorders
On 23 October a meeting was held in London convened by Professor Gavin Giovannoni and funded by the European Science Foundation. There were 28 participants from around Europe and the discussion was around a proposed study into the link between streptococcus infection and neuropsychiatric disorders which we hope will go ahead on a Europe-wide basis in due course.
Streptococcus and Tourettes- on or off?
A new British study which has been very recently published tries to establish if people with TS are more likely to have experienced streptococcal throat infections.
Read the abstract on the 'Neurology' website.
Blog post
This week, two papers from the last couple of months on treatment of TS. Follow the links to the description of the studies, in the main repository of medical research information, known as "medline".
Tourette Syndrome 2009: New York
In recent years the number of scientific meetings dedicated to TS has increased to a fairly regular flow. Every five years the American Tourette Syndrome Association (TSA) hold the biggest of these, and this organisation has also been crucial in stimulating and funding research. There have been five so far, Professor Mary Robertson has attended them all.
Welcome to the new TA Research Blog
Welcome to our new research blog. At the moment it is compiled by me, Dr. Jeremy Stern.
The first entry to follow shortly will be an update from the International Scientific Symposium in New York which was held in June, summarising several areas of the scientific literature.
The future plan for the blog is for newly published individual reports to be highlighted and put in context.
We hope this is a useful service and would welcome your comments to help@tourettes-action.org.uk.