Gilles de la Tourette syndrome in the Middle East. Report of a cohort and a multiply affected large pedigree.

In a cohort of five patients from the Middle East with the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, family history of a tic disorder or the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome was positive in three cases. In one of these there was a multiply affected pedigree spanning six generations. The phenomenology of the syndrome is the same as that described in Western reports. The familial pattern of inheritance and cross-cultural similarity emphasise the biological factors in the aetiology of the syndrome.