We summarized what is known about the course of tic disorders over time, including what we know about predicting outcome in individual patients.
Last year we published a review article that summarizes what is known about the important and common question, “hey, doc, will the tics get worse or go away?” Some of this information for individuals with tics has become available only in the past few years, even though this is the question patients and families actually want the answers to, rather than what we have known more about, namely “on average, how do people’s tics change over time?”
We discuss the following:
- characteristics before tics begin that predict outcome,
- information about prognosis of Provisional Tic Disorder (tics within a year after the first tic),
- typical course of chronic tic disorders in adolescence and early adulthood,
- brief or prolonged periods when tics disappear,
- recurrence of childhood tics in adult life,
- adult-onset tics,
- quality of life over time,
- course of symptoms other than tics in Tourette syndrome,
- features at tic onset that predict outcome,
- features after 1+ years of ticcing that predict future outcome, and
- what we think changes in the brain when tics improve with age.
We focus on recent publications, but include a more comprehensive table.
The final published article is copyrighted, but those who do not have a subscription to this journal can find the full text for free at links to the preprint or to the publisher’s article sharing page.