Clinical Effectiveness of Aripiprazole in Short-term Treatment of Tic Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A Naturalistic Study

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and tolerability of aripiprazole in short-term treatment of children and adolescents with tic disorder (TD). METHODS: This was a 14-week, prospective, open-label flexible dose trial of aripiprazole. We enrolled patients with TD aged between 4 years and 18 years. They received aripiprazole (dose: 2.5 mg/day) initially, which was then adjusted according to clinical response. The severity was assessed by the Yale Global Tic Severity Score (YGTSS) at 0, 2, 6, 10, and 14 weeks. The linear mixed models were used for evaluation of the YGTSSs at each follow-up, which were compared with baseline scores. RESULTS: Eighty-one patients were enrolled in this study. Nine patients withdrew from the study with complaints of adverse side effects. Of the remaining 72 patients, 15 patients discontinued medications prematurely due to being free of symptoms for over 2 weeks. Two patients discontinued medications due to no significant improvement. The mean scores had significantly decreased since the 2nd week (p < 0.01). The mean reduction was 51.0% in the motor tic scores, 67.1% in the vocal tic scores, and 70.0% in the total YGTSSs. The common adverse effects were sedation (32.1%) and increased appetite (22.2%). A slight increase in average body weight was noted, from 32.7 to 33.7 kg (+1.0 kg, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Aripiprazole is effective for short-term treatment of TD, especially vocal tics, in children and adolescents with mild adverse effects. However, further double-blind trials against placebo or other medications are needed to verify the efficacy of aripiprazole in the pharmacotherapy of TD.