• Marie-Laure Welter, Jean-Luc Houeto, Stéphane Thobois, Benoit Bataille, Marc Guenot, Yulia Worbe, Andreas Hartmann, Virginie Czernecki, Eric Bardinet, Jerome Yelnik, Sophie Tezenas du Montcel, Yves Agid, Marie Vidailhet, Philippe Cornu, Audrey Tanguy, Solène Ansquer, Nematollah Jaafari, Emmanuel Poulet, Giulia Serra, Pierre Burbaud, Emmanuel Cuny, Bruno Aouizerate, Pierre Pollak, Stephan Chabardes, Mircea Polosan, Michel Borg, Denys Fontaine, Bruno Giordana, Sylvie Raoul, Tiphaine Rouaud, Anne Sauvaget, Isabelle Jalenques, Carine Karachi, Luc Mallet, and STIC study group.
• Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Neurology Department, Paris, France; Clinical Investigation Centre, INSERM 1127, Sorbonne Universités, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Université Paris 06, Paris, France; Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) S1127, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), UMR 7225, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière, Paris, France. Electronic address: marie-laure.welter@psl.aphp.fr.
• Lancet Neurol. 2017 Aug 1; 16 (8): 610-619.

BackgroundDeep brain stimulation (DBS) has been proposed to treat patients with severe Tourette's syndrome, and open-label trials and two small double-blind trials have tested DBS of the posterior and the anterior internal globus pallidus (aGPi). We aimed to specifically assess the efficacy of aGPi DBS for severe Tourette's syndrome.MethodsIn this randomised, double-blind, controlled trial, we recruited patients aged 18-60 years with severe and medically refractory Tourette's syndrome from eight hospitals specialised in movement disorders in France. Enrolled patients received surgery to implant bilateral electrodes for aGPi DBS; 3 months later they were randomly assigned (1:1 ratio with a block size of eight; computer-generated pairwise randomisation according to order of enrolment) to receive either active or sham stimulation for the subsequent 3 months in a double-blind fashion. All patients then received open-label active stimulation for the subsequent 6 months. Patients and clinicians assessing outcomes were masked to treatment allocation; an unmasked clinician was responsible for stimulation parameter programming, with intensity set below the side-effect threshold. The primary endpoint was difference in Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) score between the beginning and end of the 3 month double-blind period, as assessed with a Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test in all randomly allocated patients who received active or sham stimulation during the double-blind period. We assessed safety in all patients who were enrolled and received surgery for aGPi DBS. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00478842.FindingsBetween Dec 6, 2007, and Dec 13, 2012, we enrolled 19 patients. We randomly assigned 17 (89%) patients, with 16 completing blinded assessments (seven [44%] in the active stimulation group and nine [56%] in the sham stimulation group). We noted no significant difference in YGTSS score change between the beginning and the end of the 3 month double-blind period between groups (active group median YGTSS score 68·5 [IQR 34·0 to 83·5] at the beginning and 62·5 [51·5 to 72·0] at the end, median change 1·1% [IQR -23·9 to 38·1]; sham group 73·0 [69·0 to 79·0] and 79·0 [59·0 to 81·5], median change 0·0% [-10·6 to 4·8]; p=0·39). 15 serious adverse events (three in patients who withdrew before stimulation and six each in the active and sham stimulation groups) occurred in 13 patients (three who withdrew before randomisation, four in the active group, and six in the sham group), with infections in DBS hardware in four patients (two who withdrew before randomisation, one in the sham stimulation group, and one in the active stimulation group). Other serious adverse events included one electrode misplacement (active stimulation group), one episode of depressive signs (active stimulation group), and three episodes of increased tic severity and anxiety (two in the sham stimulation group and one in the active stimulation group).Interpretation3 months of aGPi DBS is insufficient to decrease tic severity for patients with Tourette's syndrome. Future research is needed to investigate the efficacy of aGPi DBS for patients over longer periods with optimal stimulation parameters and to identify potential predictors of the therapeutic response.FundingFrench Ministry of Health.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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