The course of tics in Tourette syndrome: a 5-year follow-up study.

The current study was undertaken to explore the course of tics in Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (TS). As part of a prospective 5-year follow-up of non-clinically based TS subjects who had originally participated in a comprehensive research protocol, 23 subjects (ages 11 to 53 years) were reevaluated for tics and obsessive-compulsive (OC) characteristics. Three (13%) of the subjects had an improvement in total tic symptomatology, while 15 (65.2%) had no change and 5 (21.7%) worsened. Improvement or worsening was independent of baseline developmental age across child, adolescent, and adult subgroups. Complex motor tics at baseline predicted complex motor tics and simple phonic tics at follow-up. Baseline OC and complex motor tics independently predicted subsequent OC and complex motor symptoms. Data from the current study provide evidence of the stability of tic subtypes over time and developmental period.