Tourette Syndrome and Migraine May Go Hand-In-Hand

Archives of Neurology, November 2003

Tourette syndrome is a fairly common disorder that causes involuntary spasms and tics, sometimes with vocal outbursts. To make matters worse, researchers have now shown, patients with Tourette syndrome have a nearly four-fold higher occurrence of migraine headache than the general population.

Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and migraine have all been linked with disturbances in the brain's chemical "neurotransmitters," especially involving the serotonin system, Dr. Joseph Jankovic and colleagues note in an article in the Archives of Neurology.

To further investigate the link between migraine headache and Tourette syndrome, Dr. Jankovic's group at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston assessed the family history of migraine in 100 patients with Tourette syndrome.

Twenty-five patients reported having migraine headaches. Migraines were observed in 16 percent and 39 percent of pediatric and adult patients with Tourette syndrome, respectively, significantly greater than the corresponding rate of 6 percent and 11 percent reported in the general pediatric and adult populations.

Twenty-four of the 25 patients with migraine also had obsessive-compulsive traits. However, there was no significant difference in the presence of obsessive-compulsive traits or attention deficit in the Tourette syndrome patients with or without migraines.

Family members were also more likely to have migraines. In fact, "Fifty-six percent of patients with Tourette syndrome had a family member with migraine," Jankovic's team reports.

Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that "migraine headache, if present also in family members with Tourette syndrome, may be used as a clinical marker for this complex genetic disorder."