Tourette's Tic Reduced with Chinese Herbal Medicine

A study published in a 2012 edition of the journal, BioScience Trends, reports that a traditional Chinese herbal formula was very useful in controlling tics in children affected by Tourette's Syndrome. The formula which, though standardized and thus antithetical to the standard practice of individualizing treatment for our patients, does contain many of the likely herbal candidates that practioners might prescribe. The article, a summary of which can be read here, performed a randomized, double blind study of pediatric Tourette's patients. The patients were,

. . . randomly divided into four groups. One group received NDG, another received usual drug treatment, consisting of the antipsychotic medication haloperidol (Hal), the third group received NDG plus haloperidol and the control group received no treatment. The results showed that NDG significantly ameliorated children’s tic scores. In addition, concentrations of inhibitory neurotransmitters, including gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), were found to increase after treatment with NDG. NDG + Hal was found to be the most effective combination of all the groups.

Acupuncture Effective for Traumatic Brain Injury

As reported in the Journal of Neurotrauma (and reported here), researchers at the University of Colorado have found acupuncture to be very useful for treating brain trauma. 

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“We found that the study subjects with mild traumatic brain injury who were treated with acupressure showed improved cognitive function, scoring significantly better on tests of working memory when compared to the TBI subjects in the placebo control group”, lead researcher Professor Theresa Hernandez said.