MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (1/22/2025) — A research team from the University of Minnesota Medical School recently received a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a treatment for youth with Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders.
These conditions affect one in every 50 children and are characterized by involuntary movements or sounds called “tics.” Tics are often painful, distressing and interfere with daily life activities. In some cases, tics can be quite disabling.
The research team recently completed the first phase of this clinical trial in which they tested the use of TMS in addition to Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) as a treatment for children with Tourette syndrome. They found that this new treatment — known as CBIT+TMS — was safe, tolerable and improved circuits in the brain involved in tics.
“This work was really motivated by our clinical work and conversations with the Tourette community, which highlighted the limitations of our current treatments. Many treatments were developed when we knew much less about the brain,” said Christine Conelea, PhD, an associate professor at the U of M Medical School and pediatric psychologist with M Health Fairview. “Our results make us hopeful about the potential for CBIT+TMS to be a future treatment option that addresses these gaps.”
This new grant will be used for the second phase of the clinical trial, which will test CBIT+TMS to better understand how the treatment changes both the brain and symptoms. If successful, this work has the potential to lead to a new treatment option for people with Tourette syndrome in the future.
The trial will begin recruiting participants this spring.
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The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu.