Tourette syndrome, pimozide, and school phobia: the neuroleptic separation anxiety syndrome.

The development of school phobia has been reported in some patients with Tourette syndrome treated with haloperidol. The author reports on a patient who developed school phobia on each of three trials with pimozide, a neuroleptic chemically similar to haloperidol, and proposes the term "neuroleptic separation anxiety syndrome." The syndrome is clinically indistinguishable from DSM-III criteria for school phobia (separation anxiety disorder). Tricyclic antidepressants may have a therapeutic or prophylactic effect. It is not known whether this neuroleptic side effect occurs in patients other than those with Tourette syndrome.