מתוך medicontext.co.il
WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) – The use of a nicotine patch potentiates the effectiveness of neuroleptics used to treat Tourette's syndrome in children, Florida researchers report.
Lead investigator Dr. Paul R. Sanberg of the University of South Florida in Tampa told Reuters Health that he does not anticipate that children with Tourette's would be treated with the nicotine patch. But he said the findings open the door for investigating other drugs that behave similarly to nicotine.
As described in the September issue of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 27 children aged 8 to 18 years with Tourette's wore a nicotine patch that delivered 7 mg of nicotine into the blood over a 24-hour period. Another 29 patients wore a placebo patch.
All of the patients took their normal dose of haloperidol for 2 weeks before being assigned to the nicotine or placebo group. On the patients' sixth day with the patch, their dose of haloperidol was cut in half. They continued on the patch for 2 more weeks, then dropped the patch but stayed on the half-dose of haloperidol for another 2 weeks.
Clinician- and Patient-rated Global Improvement scores showed that nicotine therapy was associated with significant improvement in symptoms. Motor tic scores were improved more than phonic tic scores, especially on day 5. The therapeutic effect continued for 2 weeks after the patches were removed.
Most patients experienced side effects from the nicotine patch, including nausea, vomiting, itching and headache. These side effects minimize the usefulness of the patch as a co-treatment for Tourette's syndrome, Dr. Sanberg said.
"However, using the transdermal nicotine on a p.r.n. basis may be all that is needed," he and his colleagues suggest in the journal.
The degree of improvement seen in the group with the nicotine patch was "noticeable but not striking," said Dr. Gerald Erenberg, a specialist in pediatric neurology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio, who is also chairman of the Tourette's Syndrome Association's medical advisory board.
Nevertheless, the study provides a basis for research into safer and more effective nicotinic compounds, Dr. Erenberg added.
e-Med Tools
קצר קולע וממוקד
e-Med סמינרים
אי-מד תחקירים
Medscape Tools
Journal Club
מרכזי מידע ושירות
Facebook
מידע למפרסם
מאגר תרופות
מאגר אנשי המקצוע
אינדקס שימושי
חדשות משה"ב
eMed HealthClub
מחקרים קליניים
השאירו תגובה
רוצה להצטרף לדיון?תרגישו חופשי לתרום!