title: Post-traumatic tics and tetrabenazine treatment: a blinded video assessment.
abstract: Traumatic head injury is a very rare cause of secondary tic disorders. We add another case by describing, for the first time, the response to tetrabenazine in a blinded video assessment. Our patient had a severe traumatic head injury and subsequently developed tics refractory to various agents including neuroleptics. We assessed tetrabenazine treatment by virtue of patient's impression, the treating neurologist's non-blinded (Yale Global Tic Severity Scale) and a second neurologist's blinded assessment (modified Rush Video Scale). The Yale Global Tic Severity Score improved by 24% on 12.5 mg twice daily and 45% on 12.5 mg thrice daily. Subjective improvement was 50% and 70%, respectively. The modified Rush Video scores improved by 21% and 28.5%, respectively. Post-traumatic tourettism can respond to tetrabenazine. The magnitude of benefit though, may be overestimated with open-label observations, thus there is a need for studies examining objectively the effect of tetrabenazine in tic disorders.
authors: Department of Neurology, University of Vermont, Bangor, Maine, USA.
authors: Markos
authors: M
authors: Poulopoulos
authors: Mirna
authors: M
authors: Hajjar
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D018759:Adrenergic Uptake Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013747:Tetrabenazine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005879:Tourette Syndrome / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology*
chemical_list: D018759:Adrenergic Uptake Inhibitors; D013747:Tetrabenazine