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.