Pharmacological Treatment of Tourette Disorder

Tourette disorder is a chronic neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by vocal and motor tics. The course of the disorder shows waxing and vaning pattern and symptoms adversely affect patients’ quality of life. Patients use psychopharmacologic agents for long periods to control their symptoms during which they also struggle with drug related side effects. Clinicians face serious difficulties in controlling symptoms with psychopharmacological agents. Primarily alpha 2 receptor agonists and antipsychotic drugs have been used in the treatment of Tourette disorder. Risperidone and aripiprazole are the most commonly used new generation antipsychotics in the treatment. In addition there are contradictory findings regarding the use of dopamine agonists, tetrabenazine, topiramate, levatirasetame, and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in these patients