Donepezil use in children and adolescents with tics and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: An 18-week, single-center, dose-escalating, prospective, open-label study. (2008) | Labmeeting Labmeeting uses lots of Javascript - basically you can't use the site without it. So please enable Javascript in your browser. If your browser does not support Javascript, we recommend Firefox. Background: Striatal cholinergic dysfunction may be important in tics and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Objective: The purpose of this study was to deter-mine the safety profile of donepezil and whether it improves chronic tics in young patients with comorbid ADHD. Methods: This 18-week (14 weeks of open treatment followed by a 4-week washout period), single-center, dose-escalating, prospective, open-label trial was conducted in patients aged 7 to 17 years with tics, including chronic motor or vocal tics and Tourette's syndrome, and ADHD. Patients were treated with once-daily oral donepezil doses of 2.5 mg for 2 weeks, 5 mg for the next 6 weeks, and 10 mg for the last 6 weeks, followed by a 4-week washout period. Pa-tients were evaluated using the Children's Global Assessment Scale; the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS); the Revised Conners' Parent Rating Scale; the Symbol and Digit Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; the Stroop black/white, color, and interference tests; the Rey Complex Figure Test; and the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale at 4 visits: baseline, week 8 (5-mg dose), week 14 (10-mg dose), and week 18 (washout). Results: Seventeen males and 3 females (mean [SD] age, 11.3 [1.9] years [range, 8-14 years]; tic duration, 5.3 [1.9] years; ADHD duration, 6.5 [1.7] years) were included in this study. Tics were significantly reduced at the 10-mg (week-14) donepezil visit compared with the baseline and washout visits based on the total mean (SD) tic score of the YGTSS (18.6 [9.3] vs 12.2 [11.0]; P = 0.006).
