In Provisional Tic Disorder, better tic suppression predicts better prognosis

What is it about?

Here we show that a child's ability to suppress tics, if immediately rewarded every time s/he goes 10 seconds without a tic, predicts clinical outcome 6 to 12 months later, at the 1-year anniversary of the first tic.

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Why is it important?

One of the main questions parents have after their child first starts ticcing is, "will it go away (or get better), or will it get worse?" Until recently there has been little information to answer that question. Here we present a straightforward, possibly clinically relevant, predictor of outcome. Additionally, we confirm with twice as much data our previous finding that, on average, children who have only been ticcing for a few months can already suppress tics, especially when immediately rewarded for successful tic suppression. This result supports the feasibility of directing behavior therapies that rely on tic suppression to children as young as 5 with only a few months' experience with tics (e.g., www.TicTrainer.org).