Ondansetron may be useful as Tourette’s treatment
Findings from a new study suggest that treatment with the antinausea agent ondansetron may help reduce tic severity in patients with Tourette’s disorder. However, this effect was only noted on one of two symptom scales, the other did not show a significant benefit.
Dr. Paz Toren, from Tel-Aviv-Brull Community Mental Health Center in Israel, and colleagues tested odansetron as a treatment for Tourette’s because, like many anti-tic agents already in use, it blocks the 5-HT3 receptor. After the drug showed promise in an open-label study of six patients, the researchers decided to conduct a placebo-controlled study.The study, which is reported in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry for April, involved 30 patients who were randomized to ondansetron or placebo for 3 weeks.Tic severity was measured with the Tourette’s Syndrome Global Scale (TSGS) and with the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS), and another scale was used to gauge obsessive-compulsive symptoms.Ondansetron therapy was tied to a significant improvement in tic severity on the TSGS (p = 0.002), but not on the YGTSS. Moreover, the drug seemed to have no effect on obsessive-compulsive symptoms.The side effects seen with ondansetron were mild and comparable in nature and frequency to those observed with placebo, the authors note.As to why the two scales yielded different results, the researchers believe that it may, in part, relate to a narrower scope of assessment with the YGTSS. “It measures only tic behaviors and their impact rather than attempting to assess a broader range of maladaptive behaviors, such as overall behavioral adjustment, motor restlessness, and academic/vocational performance, all of which are assessed by the TSGS.”Nonetheless, Dr. Toren’s team is encouraged by the findings and believes that larger studies are warranted.(Source: J Clin Psychiatry 2005;66:499-503: Reuters Health: Oncolink: May 2005.)
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