Behavioral Therapy for Tourette Syndrome (BTTS:HBTA)

Johns Hopkins University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Tourette Syndrome

Treatments: Behavioral: Home-based DVD Therapy; Behavioral: Therapist-directed Behavioral Therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03019731

IRB00111766

Details and patient eligibility

About

This research is being done to determine whether a home-based behavioral therapy can be successfully used to treat tics in children with Tourette syndrome (TS). Behavioral therapy administered by a trained therapist has been shown to be helpful in reducing tics in children with Tourette syndrome. In this study, the investigators want to determine whether an instructional video can provide parents of children with TS with the tools necessary to successfully use behavioral therapy at home. The investigators also want to determine the effectiveness of home-based behavioral therapy as compared to improvement achieved when the therapy is provided by a trained therapist.

Full description

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with childhood onset characterized by the presence of chronic motor and vocal (phonic) tics. Tics typically begin between the ages of 4 - 7 years, frequently persist, and often lead to psychosocial, physical, functional, and academic difficulties. Epidemiological studies have shown that about 20-30% of children exhibit tics in a classroom setting whereas the estimated prevalence of impairing cases of TS is 1/100 - 1/1000 individuals. There is no cure for tics and a variety of behavioral and pharmacotherapies have been used successfully to suppress tics. Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) has been shown to be beneficial in several large trials as has habit reversal training (HRT), one of its major components. In the past, it has been suggested that only "competent and trained practitioners should administer CBIT." This proposal challenges that concept and believes that one can establish a successful front-line home-based CBIT treatment program that would be beneficial for the treatment of patients with tic symptoms throughout the country.

CBIT is a safe, effective, front-line treatment for TS. Nevertheless, the investigators emphasize the acute shortage of appropriately trained clinicians available to assist affected individuals. Hence, in this proposal the investigators will assess the effectiveness of a behavioral home-based, parent administered treatment by investigating at Johns Hopkins Hospital whether the home-based digital video disc (DVD) reduces tic severity comparable to that achieved with face-to-face treatment administered by an experienced therapist. The investigators' confidence in the success of this project is based on prior experiences with another childhood movement disorder, primary complex motor stereotypies. The potential significance of this project is enormous, recognizing that home-based therapy reduces health care costs, visits to practitioners, the need to train large numbers of therapists, and most importantly provides direct, available care for a greater number individuals affected with tics.

Enrollment: 51 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 7 to 13 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Meet criteria for TS or a chronic motor/vocal tic disorder (CTD). TS as defined by the TS Classification Study Group, includes onset before 18 years, multiple involuntary motor tics, one or more vocal tics, a waxing and waning course, the gradual replacement of old symptoms with new ones, the presence of tics for more than one year, the absence of other medical explanations for tics, and the observation of tics by a reliable examiner. CTD, criteria are as above, except that only motor or vocal tics are required
• Age 7-13 years, either gender
• Observable tics, achieving a minimum score > 20 for TS or > 15 for CTD on the Total Tic Severity score of the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS)
• Tic symptoms must be severe enough to warrant therapy; [e] Tics are not controlled with current medication or individuals are tic-suppressing drug naïve
• The concurrent use of other tic-suppressing medications will be permitted, if the subject has been on a stable dose for more than six weeks and agrees to maintain a constant dosage throughout the study; [6] The concurrent use of medication for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is also permitted if the participant has been on a stable dose for more than six weeks and agrees to maintain a constant dosage throughout the study.

Participants will be included in the study if they have had less than four previous sessions of habit reversal training. The investigators will not allow the study to interfere with simultaneous behavioral treatment. In this study, the investigators will assess whether caregiver-directed behavioral therapy using an instructional DVD will help patients who would like behavioral therapy, but the patients do not live close enough to Johns Hopkins for frequent visits.

Exclusion criteria

• Secondary tics
• Significant medical illness or a chronic neurological condition (i.e., seizure disorder, developmental neurological conditions, acquired brain injuries
• Current major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, psychotic symptoms (based upon clinical evaluation), pervasive developmental disorder, autism, intellectual disability (I.Q. less than 70), anorexia/bulimia, or substance abuse
• Individuals with significant OCD, not controlled by medication, will be excluded
• Four or more previous sessions of habit reversal training.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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51 participants in 1 patient group

Children with Tourette syndrome

Experimental group

Description:

Eligible children, between ages 7-13 years, with the diagnosis of Tourette syndrome or chronic motor/vocal tic disorder will be recruited from the Tourette Syndrome Clinics at Johns Hopkins (Dr. Singer). The Johns Hopkins Center has been acclaimed a Center of Excellence by the Tourette Association of America. This center currently follows more than 1,000 tic patients and averages 4-6 new referrals and 4 follow up patients weekly. Children will be randomly assigned to either the Therapist-directed Behavioral Therapy group or the Home-based DVD therapy group.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Therapist-directed Behavioral Therapy

Behavioral: Home-based DVD Therapy