We report the case of TS with comorbid ADHD and OCD. Treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor and methylphenidate, led to significantly improvement of ADHD symptoms, compulsive symptoms and tics. (Source: Jornal Brasileiro de Psiquiatria)

Opinion statement  Tics come in a variety of types and frequencies; have a waxing and waning course; are exacerbated by stress, anxiety, and fatigue; and often resolve or improve in the teenage or early adult years. Tourette syndrome requires the presence of chronic, fluctuating motor and phonic tics. In addition to tics, individuals with Tourette syndrome often have a variety of comorbid conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression and anxiety, episodic outbursts, and academic difficulties. These conditions often are a greater source of difficulty than the tics themselves. All patients with tics should be evaluated to assure proper diagnosis and to identify any associated psychopathology or academic difficult...

Conclusions  Morphological abnormalities in the thalamus, together with the disturbances reported in the sensorimotor cortex, striatum, and globus pallidus, support the hypothesis of a circuitwide disorder within motor pathways in TS. The connectivity and function of the numerous and diverse thalamic nuclei within cortical-subcortical circuits constitute an anatomical crossroad wherein enlargement of motor nuclei may represent activity-dependent hypertrophy within this component of cortical-subcortical motor circuits, or an adaptive response within a larger putative compensatory system that could thereby directly modulate activity in motor circuits to attenuate the severity of tics. (Source: Archives of General Psychiatry)

by Douwe Draaisma is a book regarding various illnesses ranging from Bonnet Syndrome to Alzheimer’s, with an entire range of brain diseases in between.  It provides an interesting narrative about how each disease came to be identified, by whom, the disease’s symptoms, and how it came to be named.  This book provides a historical background on these diseases and would be particularly useful for persons interested in the medical field.  It may also provide some insights on the disease for people with family members or friends who may unfortunately be afflicted.  This book, while interesting, is not deemed a page-turner initially.  However, it continues to pique the reader’s interest and even becomes quite fascinating in the latter chapters.  While each disease is covered in ...

Dr. John Piacentini of UCLA talks about CBIT, a new therapy that treats tics associated with Tourette's Syndrome (Source: National Institute of Mental Health)

Journal of Medicinal ChemistryDOI: 10.1021/jm1006269 (Source: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry)

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Conclusions : Lower expression in DAT, concomitant with higher expression in SERT could participate in the pathophysiology of TS. (Source: Neurology India)

Dr. John Piacentini of UCLA talks about CBIT, a new therapy that treats tics associated with Tourette's Syndrome (Source: National Institute of Mental Health)

We report the case of a 28-year-old woman who was diagnosed with massive hémoperitoneum while being 28 weeks pregnant. This para one woman had no previous history of endometriosis. During emergency caesarean section, she was diagnosed with superficial uterine rupture due to the spontaneous tearing of a sigmoid colon endometriotic lesion that was adherent to the posterior wall of the uterus. Endometriotic lesion is an exceptional aetiology of spontaneous hemoperitoneum during pregnancy and is usually due to the rupture of uterine vessel. To our knowledge, spontaneous rupture of a colon lesion adherent to the posterior surface of the uterus has not yet been reported. PMID: 20692112 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Journal de Gynecologie, Obstetrique et Biologie de la Repro...

Core symptoms of Tourette’s syndrome are assumed to result from inhibitory dysfunction, which could also impair theory of mind. Here the authors report evidence for theory of minddifficulties: patients exhibit deficits in recognizing faux pas and understanding intentionality. (Source: J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci)

We present a case series of eight subjects diagnosed with GTS who reported PL as part of their tic repertoire. All subjects experienced PL as a simple phonic tic, accompanied by characteristic premonitory urges and significant impairment in social interactions. In addition, all patients presented with multiple tic-related symptoms (mainly self-injurious behaviors and echolalia, n = 7; palilalia, n = 6; coprolalia/mental coprolalia, n = 5), and six patients had comorbid conditions (in particular obsessive-compulsive disorder/behaviors, n = 7; attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, n = 4). We suggest that the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the expression of PL as a tic could involve a dissociation between frontostriatal and limbic networks. © 2010 Movement Disorder Society. (So...

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We present the first English translation of Trousseau's description and argue that this description is more akin to modern conceptualization of GTS than the description of Gilles de la Tourette himself. © 2010 Movement Disorder Society (Source: Movement Disorders)

摘要 目的  观察头体针与体针对多发性抽动症的临床效果, 寻找提高针刺疗效的更佳方法。 方法  将57 例患者随机分为治疗组3l例, 对照组26 例, 治疗组采用头针与体针并用治疗, 对照组单用体针治疗, 1 个月为1 疗程。 共治疗3 个疗程, 对&#2...

We present some ignored aspects of his life based on the discovery of personal letters which illuminate the hidden side of this famous neurologist. © 2010 Movement Disorder Society (Source: Movement Disorders)

The aim of this study was to propose a novel automatic method for quantifying motor-tics caused by the Tourette Syndrome (TS). In this preliminary report, the feasibility of the monitoring process was tested over a series of standard clinical trials in a population of 12 subjects affected by TS. A wearable instrument with an embedded three-axial accelerometer was used to detect and classify motor tics during standing and walking activities. An algorithm was devised to analyze acceleration data by: eliminating noise; detecting peaks connected to pathological events; and classifying intensity and frequency of motor tics into quantitative scores. These indexes were compared with the video-based ones provided by expert clinicians, which were taken as the gold-standard. Sensitivity, specificity...

In patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) alterations of motor cortex (M1) excitability at rest have been evidenced. In contrast, there has so far been little research into changes of motor cortical reactivity during the time course of voluntary movements in GTS patients. The present study investigates neuromagnetic event-related desynchronization (ERD) and event-related synchronization (ERS) of bilateral M1 in 11 GTS patients and 11 healthy control subjects. ERD represents motor cortical activation, whereas ERS most likely indicates its inhibition. Subjects performed a self-paced finger movement task while magnetoencephalography was used to record neuromagnetic activity. In GTS patients, ERD at beta frequency was significantly increased in the contralateral hemisphere before a...

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Abstract: Gilles de la Tourette is now known for the disease which now bears his name, but his activities in the management of hysterics and in hypnotism, which gained him most of his lifetime reputation, have been largely forgotten. As one of the closest followers of Jean-Martin Charcot, he always remained faithful to his mentor's views, and was one of the most vehement defenders of La Salpêtrière school during the quarrel with Hippolyte Bernheim and the Nancy school on the question of the specificity of hypnotic susceptibility in hysteria. This controversy became critical during medico-legal assessment of crimes supposedly committed under hypnotic suggestion. Gilles de la Tourette's involvement in criminal hypnotism was striking, as shown by his own experiments, the most famous of whic...

Researchers find behavioral therapy can help some patient manage urges. (Source: WSJ.com: Health)

Tourette Syndrome and Difficulty With Sensory Processing and Integration Webinar July 21st. (Source: Disabled World)

About 80% of patients with Tourette syndrome had improved tic control after 10 weeks of video-assisted training in self-hypnosis, results of a small clinical trial showed. (Source: MedPage Today Neurology)