N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for Children With Tourette Syndrome

Tic Clinical Trial

Official title: Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for the Treatment of Children With Tourette Syndrome

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

Tourette syndrome is a childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics that last for at least a year in duration. Currently, there exist several effective pharmacological treatments for childhood tics including alpha-2 agonist medications (guanfacine and clonidine) and neuroleptics (antipsychotic) medications. These medications, however, have significant side-effects and are only partially efficacy in treating tics.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a natural supplement that acts as an antioxidant and glutamate modulating agent. NAC has been used safely for decades in doses 20-40 times higher than in this trial as an antidote for acetaminophen overdose. The only side-effect commonly seen with NAC is nausea and this side-effect is seldom seen in the doses used in this trial.

NAC has recently been demonstrated to be effective in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in adults with trichotillomania (chronic hair pulling). Hairpulling is hypothesized to be closely related to tics because these conditions (1) have similar clinical characteristics -- both groups typically experience urges before engaging in pulling or tics, (2) neuroimaging studies suggest they involve similar brain circuits -- the basal ganglia, (3) the same pharmacological treatments (neuroleptics) may be effective for both conditions and (4) they tend to be inherited together in families. In other trials NAC has evidence of some efficacy in treating diverse psychiatric conditions such as bipolar depression, schizophrenia and cocaine dependence.

The investigators are conducting this trial to determine if NAC is an effective treatment for tics.

Clinical Trial Description

n/a

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor), Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Syndrome
• Tic
• Tourette Syndrome
• Tourettes Syndrome

• NCT number: NCT01172288
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Yale University
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 2
• Start date: July 2010
• Completion date: January 2014