Behavior Therapy for Tic Disorders

Dr. Doug Woods

Tourette Syndrome is a neurological condition consisting of multiple motor and vocal tics that are presumably due to failed inhibition within cortical-striatial-cortical motor pathways. In recent years, there has been a growing recognition among psychiatry and neurology about the utility of behavior therapy procedures in managing the symptoms of Tourette Syndrome in children and adults. Recently, the National Institute of Mental Health funded a multi-site group of researchers working with the Tourette Syndrome Association to conduct two parallel randomized clinical trials investigating the efficacy of these procedures in adults and children with TS. The procedures being tested in the study combine elements of habit reversal training with psychoeducation and function-based behavioral interventions, yielding a Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT). The proposed talk with briefly review the empirical basis for the CBIT intervention, describe the treatment and study design, and empirically address commonly held clinical perceptions that behavioral treatments are likely to have untoward side effects such as the forced emergence of new tics, rebound in tic frequency, and poor acceptability.