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This study investigated whether vitamin D is associated with the presence or severity of chronic tic disorders and their psychiatric comorbidities. This cross-sectional study compared serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] (ng/ml) levels among three groups: children and adolescents (3–16 years) with CTD (n = 327); first-degree relatives (3–10 years) of individuals with CTD who were assessed for a period of up to 7 years for possible onset of tics and developed tics within this period (n = 31); and first-degree relatives who did not develop tics and were ≥ 10 years old at their last assessment (n = 93). The relationship between 25(OH)D and the presence and severity of tics, as well as comorbid obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), were analysed controlling for age, sex, season, centre, latitude, family relatedness, and comorbidities. When comparing the CTD cohort to the unaffected cohort, the observed result was contrary to the one expected: a 10 ng/ml increase in 25(OH)D was associated with higher odds of having CTD (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.27–3.42, p p = 0.01) and was inversely associated with ADHD symptom severity (β = − 2.52, 95% CI − 4.16–0.88, p

Background: Children with Tourette syndrome (TS) often have comorbid disorders, particularly attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While subtle premorbid symptoms have been described in various psychiatric disorders, the presence of clinical precursors that may exist before the onset of tics is unknown. This longitudinal study aimed to find clinical precursors of tics by assessing a range of clinical characteristics prior to tic onset in comparison with children without onset of tics.Methods: A sample of 187 3- to 10-year-old first-degree unaffected relatives of children with TS were followed up to 7 years in the European Multicentre Tics in Children Study (EMTICS). We investigated whether clinical characteristics assessed at baseline predicted tic onset, comparing 126 children without tic onset to 61 children who developed tics. We used the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method, a penalised logistic regression approach. We also explored sex differences and repeated our analyses in an age- and sex-matched subsample.Results: Children with tic onset were more frequently male (beta = -0.36), had higher baseline severity of conduct problems (beta = 0.23), autism spectrum disorder symptoms (ASD; beta = 0.08), compulsions (beta = 0.02) and emotional problems (beta = 0.03) compared to children without tic onset. Conduct and ASD problems were male-specific predictors, whereas severity of compulsions and oppositional (beta = 0.39) and emotional problems were female-specific predictors.Conclusion: This study supports the presence of clinical precursors prior to tic onset and highlights the need of sex-specific monitoring of children at risk of developing tics. This may aid in the earlier detection of tics, particularly in females. We moreover found that tics most often persisted one year after tic onset, in contrast to the common belief that tics are mostly transient.

The EMTICS collaborative group: Anastasiou, Zacharias; Apter, Alan; Baglioni, Valentina; Bartolini, Erika; Benaroya-Milshtein, Noa; Bodmer, Benjamin; Bognar, Emese; Burger', Bianka; Buttiglione, Maura; Cardona, Francesco; Vela, Marta Correa; Creti, Roberta; Dietrich, Andrea; Debes, Nanette M.; Efstratiou, Androulla; Ferro, Maria Cristina; Fremer, Carolin; Garcia-Delgar, Blanca; Gariup, Maria; Georgitsi, Marianthi; Gulisano, Mariangela; Hagen, Annelieke; Hagstrom, Julie; Hedderly, Tammy J.; Heyman, Isobel; Hoekstra, Pieter J.; Huyser, Chaim; Imperi, Monica; Karagiannidis, Iordanis; Laviola, Giovanni; Macri, Simone; Madruga-Garrido, Marcos; Margarit, Immaculada; Marotta, Anna; Martino, Davide; Meier, Ute C.; Mir, Pablo; Mo, Natalie; More, Astrid; Mueller-Vahl, Kirsten; Muenchau, Alexander; Nagy, Peter; Neri, Valeria; Openneer, Thafra J. C.; Orefici, Graziella; Paschou, Peristera; Pellico, Alessandra; Petruzzelli, Onofrio; Porcelli, Cesare; Redondo, Marina; Rizzo, Renata; Roazzi, Paolo; Roessner, Veit; Ruhrman, Daphna; Schnell, Jaana M. L.; Schrag, Anette; Schutze, Gregor A.; Schwarz, Markus J.; Silvestri, Paola Rosaria; Skov, Liselotte; Steinberg, Tamar; Stober, Sara; Tallon, Marco; Tarnok, Zsanett, In Tourette Syndrome (TS) a role for autoantibodies directed against neuronal proteins has long been suspected, but so far results are still inconsistent. The aim of this study was to look for antibodies to specific or undefined neuronal proteins that could be involved in the aetiology of the disease. Sera from children with Tourette Syndrome or another chronic tic disorder (TS/TD), collected as part of the longitudinal European Multicenter Tics in Children Study, were investigated. Participants included 30 siblings of patients with TS/TD prior to developing tics (preclinical stage) and the same children after the first tic onset (onset), and 158 patients in the chronic phase undergoing an acute relapse (exacerbation). Presence of antibodies binding to rodent brain tissue was assessed by immunohistology on rat brain sections and by immunofluorescent staining of live hippocampal neurons. Live cell-based assays were used to screen for antibodies to NMDAR, CASPR2, LGI1, AMPAR and GABAAR. Immunohistology indicated evidence of antibodies reactive with brain tissue, binding mainly to the hippocampus, the basal ganglia or the cerebellum in 26/218 (12%), with 8% of the preclinical or onset sera binding to the dentate gyrus/CA3 region or cerebellum. Only two individuals (one pre-clinical, one chronic) had antibodies binding the NMDAR and the binding was only weakly positive. No other specific antibodies were detected. Despite some immunoreactivity towards neuronal antigens on brain tissue, this was not mirrored by antibodies binding to live neurons, suggesting the presence of non-specific antibodies or those that bind non-pathogenic intracellular epitopes. NMDAR or the other neuronal surface antibodies tested were very infrequent in these patients. The evidence for pathogenic antibodies that could be causative of TS is weak.