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Behavioral Therapy for Children and Adolescents With Tourette Syndrome

Behavioral Therapy for Children and Adolescents With Tourette Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Taiwan

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03621059
Enrollment
46
Registered
2018-08-08
Start date
2015-01-01
Completion date
2016-09-30
Last updated
2018-08-08

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Tourette Syndrome

Keywords

Tourette syndrome, behavior therapy, children and adolescents

Brief summary

Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a common neuropsychiatric disorder in childhood and adolescence, and often comorbid with psychiatric comorbidity. Antipsychotic medications are usually the first choices, but may associate with adverse effects. Behavioral intervention for TS has been shown to be an effective treatment for children and adolescents, yet have not been performed and evaluated using control trails in Taiwan.

Detailed description

TS is a common neuropsychiatric disorder in childhood and adolescence, and often comorbid with psychiatric comorbidity. Antipsychotic medications are usually the first choices, but may associate with adverse effects. Behavioral intervention for TS has been shown to be an effective treatment for children and adolescents, yet have not been performed and evaluated using control trails in Taiwan. This study therefore was to evaluate the efficacy of a comprehensive behavioral intervention therapy on improving tics and tic-related impairment for children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome.

Interventions

The intervention group received 4 sessions during 3months of behavior intervention and then, were reassessed at 3 and 6 months following treatment. Pyridoxine(50mg)

Sponsors

Taipei Medical University
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)

Masking description

Eligible children were randomly assigned by sealed envelope to either intervention or control group. Several methods were used to maintain the treatment blindly, including segregation of assessment and treatment staff and instructions to children and parents to avoid discussions of treatment assignment with the independent evaluators.

Intervention model description

A collection of behavioral skills named as Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention (CBIT) for Tics had been found to be effective (Piacentini et al., 2010).The major components of CBIT includes psychoeducation of tics, habit reversal training (HRT), function-based interventions, and relaxation training (Piacentini et al., 2010).The HRT consists of several therapeutic activities, including awareness training (i.e., observing the premonitory urge or other signs preceding the occurrence of a tic), competing response training (i.e., engaging in a voluntary behavior that is physically incompatible with the tic to manage the premonitory urge), self-monitoring of tics and relaxation training (Himle et al., 2006).

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
6 Years to 15 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

* DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria For Tourette Syndrome * Patients aged from 6-15 years who were diagnosed with TS or CTD, * Never received any pharmacological treatment * Ability to understand the study purpose and/or provide consent for participation independently and via a caregiver serving as a proxy

Exclusion criteria

* Have been diagnosed with another mental illness, * Had no physical or medical condition, * Had been received CBIT or cognitive behavior therapy before.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Eefficacy of a behavioral therapy on improving tics with Tourette syndromeat 3rd month and 6rd months following treatment.Behavioral intervention group led to a significantly greater decrease in total motor score on the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale .The gold-standard measure of tic severity in TS, the YGTSS is a clinician-completed measure consisting of a tic symptom checklist, motor and vocal tic severity ratings, and a global tic impairment rating. To ascertain tic severity ratings, the examiner rates five different dimensions of tic severity each on a 0-5 scale: tic number, frequency, duration, intensity, and complexity. Each of the dimensions is scored separately for motor and vocal tics to produce motor and vocal tic subscale scores (range 0-25). These subscales are then combined to produce a total tic severity score (range 0-50), with higher numbers indicating more severe tics. The YGTSS has demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and acceptable convergent and divergent validity).

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026