This page was translated automatically from Turkish. Read the original

This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV0268

Predictors of 18-month clinical outcomes in children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome: Findings from the COURSE-CAT cohort

PREDICTORS OF 18-MONTH CLINICAL OUTCOMES IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH TOURETTE SYNDROME: INSIGHTS FROM THE COURSE-CAT COHORT

Approximately two-thirds of children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome showed clinical improvement over 18 months. While the natural course and medication independently reduced tic severity, medication primarily moderated the trajectory of functional impairment.

The study aimed to examine the 18-month longitudinal course of tic severity in children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome and to identify clinical and treatment-related predictors of favorable outcomes. In this 18-month longitudinal study nested within the prospective COURSE-CAT cohort, the initial sample comprised 69 participants, and analyses were conducted on 53 participants with complete data, with assessments repeated at five time points (T0 through T4). Tic severity and overall functional impairment were measured using the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS); the predictor variable was baseline medication status (medicated or unmedicated), documented under naturalistic follow-up conditions. Repeated-measures analysis of variance (rm-ANOVA, alpha = 0.05) was used to analyze the effects of time, baseline medication status, and the time x medication interaction. At 18 months, 71.7% of participants (n = 38) showed clinical improvement, 18.9% (n = 10) showed clinical worsening, and 9.4% (n = 5) remained clinically stable. The mean YGTSS total score decreased by 24.9% (motor tics by 24.1% and phonic tics by 26.2%). For the YGTSS total score, the main effects of time (F = 3.95; p = 0.0018) and medication use (F = 9.67; p = 0.0028) were significant, whereas the time x medication interaction was not significant (p = 0.3166). For the YGTSS impairment score, the main effects of time (F = 3.98; p = 0.0017) and medication (F = 7.45; p = 0.0081) were also significant, while the interaction showed a strong trend approaching statistical significance (p = 0.0504). The authors state that the natural course and pharmacotherapy are independent, parallel factors that reduce tic severity, and that medication acts primarily by moderating the longitudinal trajectory of functional impairment. The findings emphasize the need for systematic follow-up at multiple time points to predict the long-term neuropsychiatric course of pediatric Tourette syndrome.

All WCP 2026 summaries