Tourette Syndrome and Migraine May Go Hand-In-Hand

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Tourette syndrome is a fairly common
disorder that causes involuntary spasms and tics, sometimes with
vocal outbursts. To make matters worse, researchers have now shown,
patients with Tourette syndrome have a nearly four-fold higher
occurrence of migraine headache than the general population


Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and migraine have
all been linked with disturbances in the brain's
chemical "neurotransmitters," especially involving the serotonin
system, Dr. Joseph Jankovic and colleagues note in an article in the
Archives of Neurology.


To further investigate the link between migraine headache and
Tourette syndrome, Dr. Jankovic's group at Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston assessed the family history of migraine in 100
patients with Tourette syndrome.


Twenty-five patients reported having migraine headaches. Migraines
were observed in 16 percent and 39 percent of pediatric and adult
patients with Tourette syndrome, respectively, significantly greater
than the corresponding rate of 6 percent and 11 percent reported in
the general pediatric and adult populations.


Twenty-four of the 25 patients with migraine also had obsessive-
compulsive traits. However, there was no significant difference in
the presence of obsessive-compulsive traits or attention deficit in
the Tourette syndrome patients with or without migraines.


Family members were also more likely to have migraines. In
fact, "Fifty-six percent of patients with Tourette syndrome had a
family member with migraine," Jankovic's team reports.


Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that "migraine
headache, if present also in family members with Tourette syndrome,
may be used as a clinical marker for this complex genetic disorder."


SOURCE: Archives of Neurology, November 2003.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031124/hl_nm/tourettes_migraines_dc_1

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Other Info:

Prestwick Pharmaceuticals

Prestwick Pharmaceuticals (Washington, DC) is developing the drug
Xenazine to treat abnormal movements in Huntington's chorea and
other disorders such as Tourette's syndrome, which together affect
100,000 patients in the U.S. Xenazine was originally developed by
Roche as long ago as 1959 and is now in Phase III for Prestwick's
indications. The company also has other CNS interests, such as the
North American rights for one of Schering's (NYSE:SHR) Parkinson's
disease drugs in patch/transdermal form.

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