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N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for Children With Tourette Syndrome

NCT01172288 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE2 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 31

Last updated 2017-02-10

Study results available
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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.

Conditions

  • Tourettes Syndrome
  • Tic

Interventions

DRUG

N-Acetylcysteine (NAC)

1 600mg capsule twice a day for 2 weeks and then 2 600mg capsules twice a day for the remaining 10 weeks of the trial.

DRUG

Placebo

1 600mg Capsule twice a day for two weeks then 2 600mg capsules twice a day for the remaining 10 weeks of the study. Children receiving placebo will be offered the active intervention after the double-blind portion of the trial.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry.

    collaborator OTHER

  • Yale University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Michael H. Bloch, MD, MS · Yale University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
QUADRUPLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
8 Years
Max Age
17 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2010-07-31
Primary Completion
2014-01-31
Completion
2014-01-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Drugs

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01172288 on ClinicalTrials.gov