Objective: Tics is common childhood movement disorder, with classified variants , typically begin at around 4-5 years of age but often present later at about 9 -10 years,10% of all children are affected, considered to be of a mild clinical significance , as it improves by as child grows with various physical and brain metabolism but it do concern as child psycho-social behavior at various interaction with peers. Though exact pathophysiology is not well understood but theories of developmental immaturity in cortico-neurotramitter pathways is hypotheticated.

Background: Vitamin D has shown property of neuronal modulation as a neurosteroids, which activates neurotransmitters with beneficial effect in some of Tics movement disorder as it regulates nerve growth factor. It prompted us to present our work on effect of vit-D in tics movement disorder.

Methods: 34 children with various form of tics disorder , in age group of 9–12 were analysed & studied with interviews, teachers-peers-parents-self perceptions, who presented with various classified different varients, as mild, simple, clonic,tonic and touretts syndrome, tics movement disorder, during school health check program. All children were given therapeutic doses of vit D and re-evaluted after 6 months.

Results: Out of total 34 children were males 22 (64%) and females 12 (34%) who presented with various tics analysed as 13(38%) eye blinking, 9(26%)shoulder struggling, 7(21%)facial grimacing 4(12%) neck stretching and there was one child with tourette syndrome. The present vit-D study group has shown positive impact on generalized improvement in frequency, duration, intensity of tics movements resulting in improved confidence with enhancement of psychosocial acceptance as perceived by self, teachers, peers and family members after 6 months.

Conclusions: The present study has shown beneficial effect of vitamin D in improving in overall intensity and duration of tics occurrence with psychosocial status resulting successful learning with confident socializing. We feel large elaborative studies will help in establishing positive impact of vitamin D in various tics movement disorder. Many researchers have questioned whether the depletion of vitamin D actually causes these disorders or if vitamin D is a symptom of these disorders. The study consisted of a relatively small number of patients, and further studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of vitamin D in various tics disorder fully answer these questions.

References: Ellis CR, Pataki C. “Background: Childhood Habit Behaviors and Stereotypic Movement Disorder”. Medscape. Retrieved October 6, 2013.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/vit-d-and-tics-movement-disorder-2/