Aripiprazole for the treatment of Tourette's disorder.
OBJECTIVE
Tourette's disorder is a neuropsychiatric syndrome that manifests with motor and vocal tics, including coprolalia. This article presents a report of successful treatment of these tics with aripiprazole in 2 consecutive patients with Tourette's disorder.


METHODS
After an informed consent was obtained from the subjects, approval for this retrospective case series was sought from the Institutional Review Board. A detailed history was obtained and physical and mental state examination was performed for each patient. Tic severity was assessed using the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale. Aripiprazole was started at a low dose (5 mg/day) and titrated. The severity of tics was monitored during follow-up.


RESULTS
The 2 individuals presented in these case reports tolerated aripiprazole well and showed a clinically significant decrease in tic frequency and severity.


CONCLUSIONS
Aripiprazole, a newer atypical antipsychotic with a unique pharmacodynamic profile, appears to be efficacious in treatment of tics in Tourette's disorder, thus impressing upon the need for placebo-controlled trials in the management of this neuropsychiatric syndrome.
Omaha Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Nebraska, USA. ppadala@unmc.edu
Prasad R
PR
Padala
S Faiz
SF
Qadri
Vishal
V
Madaan