Affiliations: Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center
and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX,
USA
Note: [] Correspondence: Christopher J. Kenney, MD., Parkinson's Disease
Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Department of Neurology, Baylor College
of Medicine, 6550 Fannin, Suite 1801, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Tel.: +1 713 798
5998; Fax: +1 713 798 6808; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: We sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of tetrabenazine (TBZ)
in patients with moderate to severe Tourette syndrome (TS). TBZ, a
monoamine-depleting drug, has been previously reported to be effective in the
treatment of hyperkinetic movement disorders such as Huntington disease and
tardive dyskinesia. TBZ has the distinct advantage over neuroleptics in that it
does not cause tardive dyskinesia. We describe a retrospective, open-label
study of 77 TS patients (75.3% male), and 14.8 ± 17.4 years of age,
treated with TBZ for an average of 2.0 years. TBZ showed a moderate to marked
improvement in TS-related symptoms and functional improvement in 83.1% of
patients. Adverse events included drowsiness/fatigue (36.4%), nausea (10.4%),
depression (9.1%), insomnia (7.8%), and parkinsonism (6.5%). In this
retrospective, open-label study, TBZ was found to be generally safe and
well-tolerated in patients with TS.
