Clinical characteristics of adult patients with tics and/or Tourette's syndrome.

OBJECTIVE

This study was conducted to describe the natural course of tic disorders over a long period of time in Japanese adults patients with Tourette's syndrome (TS) in terms of symptomatology.

METHODS

An extensive literature on TS cases was reviewed selectively and 31 TS patients (mean age: 31.4 years; sex: 28 males and 3 females) at our outpatient clinic were examined. The mean follow-up period of the patients was 7.6 years (SD: 8.1; 0 to 26). All the data available for this study, including medical charts, were examined systematically by two experienced child psychiatrists.

RESULTS

The adult patients with tic disorders could be classified into the four groups: group A - tics only, group B - tics + comorbidities, group C - comorbidities only and group D - sub-clinical (remission) cases. Our 31 subjects consisted of 10 patients (32.3%) for group A, 14 (45.2%) for group B, 7 (22.6%) for group C, and 0 for group D.

CONCLUSIONS

Further investigation into the natural course and clinical characteristics of adult TS needs to be done in order to acquire a better understanding of the broad spectrum of TS and to make improvements to the treatment for this illness.