This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Abstract
Background: Most children with Tourette syndrome (TS) experience a marked decline in the severity of tic symptoms during adolescence. Currently no clinical measures can predict whose tic symptoms will persist into adulthood. Previous cross-sectional imaging studies have identified reduced caudate nucleus volumes in subjects with TS.
Objective: To evaluate whether caudate nucleus volumes in childhood can predict the severity of tic or obsessive–compulsive symptoms at follow-up in early adulthood.
Methods: In a prospective longitudinal study, clinical status and basal ganglia volumes of 43 children with TS were measured on high-resolution magnetic resonance images before age 14 years. Follow-up clinical assessments were conducted after age 16 years, an average of 7.5 years later. Linear regression and Tobit regression analyses were used to assess the association of basal ganglia volumes measured in childhood with the severity of tic and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms at the time of childhood MRI and at follow-up in early adulthood.
Results: Volumes of the caudate nucleus correlated significantly and inversely with the severity of tic and OCD symptoms in early adulthood. Caudate volumes did not correlate with the severity of symptoms at the time of the MRI scan.
Conclusions: Caudate volumes in children with Tourette syndrome predict the severity of tic and obsessive–compulsive symptoms in early adulthood. This study provides compelling evidence that morphologic disturbances of the caudate nucleus within cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical circuits are central to the persistence of both tics and obsessive–compulsive symptoms into adulthood.
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
