What happens to children with recent-onset tics, and why?

What is it about?

This somewhat long-winded manuscript describes what my colleagues and I have been working on for the past 9+ years, and our results to date. We work hard to enroll children within the first few months after they start having tics, intensively examine them (clinical, psychological, MRI), and then follow up with them at the one-year anniversary of their first tic. The main questions are, who gets better over the intervening months, who doesn't, and why? We have already identified several indicators of who will improve most during that first year of ticcing.

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Why is it important?

Chronic tic disorders are frequent and often reduce quality of life. The proposed research may have substantial benefits for Tourette syndrome. The clearest benefits are that it may identify entirely new directions for further etiologic and pathophysiological research, and it can clarify the causality of associations we find. The New Tics population is also important in its own right. Children with recent-onset tics are seen commonly in pediatrics or child neurology practices, and parents want to know what will become of their child. Finally, this population offers the tantalizing possibility of preventing TS, by directing benign treatment such as behavior therapy to those children who are least likely to improve spontaneously.