Tetrabenazine in the treatment of Tourette syndrome

We sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of tetrabenazine (TBZ) in patients with moderate to severe Tourette syndrome (TS). TBZ, a monoamine-depleting drug, has been previously reported to be effective in the treatment of hyperkinetic movement disorders such as Huntington disease and tardive dyskinesia. TBZ has the distinct advantage over neuroleptics in that it does not cause tardive dyskinesia. We describe a retrospective, open-label study of 77 TS patients (75.3% male), and 14.8 +/- 17.4 years of age, treated with TBZ for an average of 2.0 years. TBZ showed a moderate to marked improvement in TS-related symptoms and functional improvement in 83.1% of patients. Adverse events included drowsiness/fatigue (36.4%), nausea (10.4%), depression (9.1%), insomnia (7.8%), and parkinsonism (6.5%). In this retrospective, open-label study, TBZ was found to be generally safe and well-tolerated in patients with TS.