Clonidine skin paster versus haloperidol and tiapride in the treatment of children with Tourette's syndrome

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of clonidine skin paster in comparison with haloperidol and tiapride in the treatment of children with Tourette's syndrome(TS).Methods: Total 92 TS patients were divided into study group of 25 cases(treated with clonidine skin paster),haloperidol group of 38 cases (treated with haloperidol) and tiapride group of 29 cases(treated with tiapride),and the period of treatment was 12 weeks.All the cases were scored by the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale(YGTSS),and there were no significant difference in YGTSS scores between three groups at the beginning of the study.Results: The proportion of efficacious cases in clonidine skin paster group(84.0%) appeared slightly higher than that in haloperidol group(68.4%,P0.05)and tiapride group(65.5%,P0.05);the proportion of side effects in study group(16.0%) was significant lower than that in haloperidol group(65.8%,P0.01)and tiapride group(48.3%,P0.05);there was no difference in mean remission time between three groups(45.65±8.57)d,(40.81±6.79)d and (42.34±7.92)d respectively(P0.05).Clonidine skin paster produced a higher reduction in the YGTSS(64.90±10.49)% than haloperidol(42.73±11.90)%(P0.05) and tiapride(40.63±13.58)%(P0.05).Conclusions: In this pilot study,clonidine skin paster was demonstrated a better efficacy than haloperidol and tiapride in the treatment of children with TS,and its side effects was mild and rare.