Effects of medications on regulation of body temperature of patients with Tourette syndrome.

Tourette syndrome is defined and characterized mainly by the presence of motor and phonic tics. Frequently, other medical, psychologic, and psychiatric symptoms coincide with Tourette syndrome. Despite extensive efforts extended over many years of research, the etiology leading to Tourette syndrome remains obscure. A number of hypotheses have been offered in the past to resolve the pathophysiology of Tourette syndrome. Based on the existence of an abnormal body temperature profile in patients with Tourette syndrome, an idiopathic hypothalamic disorder has been proposed to be involved in this ailment. When monitoring the effects of medications employed in the consensus for Tourette syndrome treatments, it became evident that medications ameliorate neurologic tics and rectify the patient's periodic hypothermal body temperature. Correlating the neurologic status to hypothalamic dysregulation, the data presented in this study strengthen the hypothesis of an idiopathic hypothalamic disorder underlying the Tourette syndrome cascade.

Platelet-associated antibodies mediate protective autoimmune response in schizophrenia.

The peripheral blood platelets of schizophrenic patients were isolated, and the level of the platelet-associated antibodies (SPAA) was correlated with the rating scores of discrete schizophrenic symptom clusters evaluated with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Irrespective of medication and gender, symptom-dependent correlations were established between the SPAA levels and the relevant psychometric scores. The results indicate a heterogeneous origin of schizophrenia and imply the involvement of an autoimmune arm as a predominantly protective immune response.

Tourette syndrome associated with body temperature dysregulation: possible involvement of an idiopathic hypothalamic disorder.

Tourette syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder that holds the potential to afflict the emotional, familial, social, or scholastic performances of patients with Tourette syndrome in day-to-day life functioning. The disorder is today characterized mainly and diagnosed by clinical observations, yet false-negative results obtained in the diagnosis of Tourette syndrome are numerous and well documented. There is still no laboratory or imaging technique available for the diagnosis of Tourette syndrome. This article reports on changes of the ambient thermal perception (38%) and a circadian dysregulation of the body-temperature profile present in Tourette syndrome probands, irrespective of their chronologic age, sex, or comorbid symptoms. An involvement of idiopathic hypothalamic dysfunctions associated with Tourette syndrome is proposed. Such a phenomenon, if substantiated, could lead to a better understanding of Tourette syndrome and the development of unbiased physical diagnostic criteria of Tourette syndrome and potentiate possible production of novel therapeutic possibilities.