Clinical trial NCT01172288: N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for Children With Tourette Syndrome
Official title: Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for the Treatment of Children With Tourette Syndrome
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: PHASE2
Conditions: Tourettes Syndrome
Tic
Keywords: Tic disorders,
Tourette syndrome
Chronic Tic Disorders
Lead sponsor: Yale University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry.
First posted: 2010-07-29
Enrollment: 31
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 8
Maximum age (years): 17
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: Tourette syndrome is a childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics that last for at least a year in duration. Currently, there exist several effective pharmacological treatments for childhood tics including alpha-2 agonist medications (guanfacine and clonidine) and neuroleptics (antipsychotic) medications. These medications, however, have significant side-effects and are only partially efficacy in treating tics.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a natural supplement that acts as an antioxidant and glutamate modulating agent. NAC has been used safely for decades in doses 20-40 times higher than in this trial as an antidote for acetaminophen overdose. The only side-effect commonly seen with NAC is nausea and this side-effect is seldom seen in the doses used in this trial.

NAC has recently been demonstrated to be effective in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in adults with trichotillomania (chronic hair pulling). Hairpulling is hypothesized to be closely related to tics because these conditions (1) have similar clinical characteristics -- both groups typically experience urges before engaging in pulling or tics, (2) neuroimaging studies suggest they involve similar brain circuits -- the basal ganglia, (3) the same pharmacological treatments (neuroleptics) may be effective for both conditions and (4) they tend to be inherited together in families. In other trials NAC has evidence of some efficacy in treating diverse psychiatric conditions such as bipolar depression, schizophrenia and cocaine dependence.

The investigators are conducting this trial to determine if NAC is an effective treatment for tics.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Children aged 8-17 years.
* Primary diagnosis of Tourette syndrome or chronic tic disorder.
* Duration of tics greater than 1 year.
* Significant Current tic symptoms: Current YGTSS score greater than or equal to 22 with a TS diagnosis or greater than or equal to 14 with a chronic tic disorder.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Comorbid bipolar disorder, psychotic disorder, substance use disorder, developmental disorder or mental retardation (IQ\<70).
* Recent change (less than 4 weeks) in medications that have potential effects on tic severity (such as neuroleptic medications, dopamine agonists, alpha-2 agonists (guanfacine, clonidine or prazosin), SSRIs, clomipramine, naltrexone, lithium, psychostimulants, or anxiolytics). Medication change is defined to include dose changes or medication discontinuation.
* Recent change in behavioral treatment for Tourette syndrome or comorbid conditions (i.e. OCD) within the last 4 weeks or initiation of behavioral therapy for tics within the last 12 weeks.
* Asthma requiring medication use within the last 3 months
* Known hypersensitivity or previous anaphylactoid reaction to acetylcysteine or any components in its preparation
* Positive pregnancy test or drug screening test.
* Previous use of N-acetylcysteine (dose greater than 600mg for more than 2 weeks)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Improvement in Tic Severity
timeFrame: 12 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Improvement of Premonitory Urges
timeFrame: 12 weeks
measure: Improvement in OCD Severity
timeFrame: 12 weeks
measure: Overall Improvement
timeFrame: 12 weeks
measure: Number of Participants With Adverse Effects
timeFrame: 12 weeks
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: New Haven
country: United States
facility: Yale Child Study Center
state: Connecticut
Study officials:
affiliation: Yale University
name: Michael H. Bloch, MD, MS
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Grant JE, Odlaug BL, Kim SW. N-acetylcysteine, a glutamate modulator, in the treatment of trichotillomania: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009 Jul;66(7):756-63. doi: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.60.
citation: Bloch MH, Leckman JF. Clinical course of Tourette syndrome. J Psychosom Res. 2009 Dec;67(6):497-501. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.09.002.
citation: Berk M, Copolov DL, Dean O, Lu K, Jeavons S, Schapkaitz I, Anderson-Hunt M, Bush AI. N-acetyl cysteine for depressive symptoms in bipolar disorder--a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial. Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Sep 15;64(6):468-75. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.04.022. Epub 2008 Jun 5.
citation: Berk M, Copolov D, Dean O, Lu K, Jeavons S, Schapkaitz I, Anderson-Hunt M, Judd F, Katz F, Katz P, Ording-Jespersen S, Little J, Conus P, Cuenod M, Do KQ, Bush AI. N-acetyl cysteine as a glutathione precursor for schizophrenia--a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Sep 1;64(5):361-8. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.03.004. Epub 2008 Apr 23.
citation: Ng F, Berk M, Dean O, Bush AI. Oxidative stress in psychiatric disorders: evidence base and therapeutic implications. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2008 Sep;11(6):851-76. doi: 10.1017/S1461145707008401. Epub 2008 Jan 21.
citation: Singer HS, Morris C, Grados M. Glutamatergic modulatory therapy for Tourette syndrome. Med Hypotheses. 2010 May;74(5):862-7. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2009.11.028. Epub 2009 Dec 21.
citation: Bloch MH, Panza KE, Yaffa A, Alvarenga PG, Jakubovski E, Mulqueen JM, Landeros-Weisenberger A, Leckman JF. N-Acetylcysteine in the Treatment of Pediatric Tourette Syndrome: Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Add-On Trial. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2016 May;26(4):327-34. doi: 10.1089/cap.2015.0109. Epub 2016 Mar 30.