CASE REPORT article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1647969
This article is part of the Research TopicLife with Tic Disorders: From Childhood to AdulthoodView all 12 articles
Long-Term Use of Cannabis-Based Medicines in Two Children with Tourette Syndrome: A Case Report
Provisionally accepted
- 1Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hanover, Germany
- 2Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
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Introduction Cannabis-based medicine (CBM) is recommended for the treatment of tics in otherwise treatment-resistant adult patients with Tourette syndrome (TS). However, evidence in children with TS is very limited. Long-term effects of CBM in this population are unknown. Case presentations We present two cases of long-term follow-up over six and five years, respectively, in male adolescents with TS who were administered CBM starting at the age of eight and 12 years, respectively. In one patient CBM treatment was initiated with pure tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and was later changed to current treatment with an oral THC-dominant cannabis extract (THC:cannabidiol (CBD)=25:<0.5) with a daily dose of 0.5-0.6 mL (corresponding to 12.5-15 mg THC/day). The other patient was from the beginning up to now medicated by his parents, who are physicians, with vaporized THC-dominant (24%) medicinal cannabis flowers with a dose of 0.2 g between once to thrice per day (corresponding to 48–144 mg THC/day). While in one patient, there was a moderate dose increase over the years, in the other patient dosages were adjusted individually depending on tic severity. In both patients, CBM treatment resulted in continued benefit with significant improvement of tics and psychiatric comorbidities without severe adverse effects clinically relevant adverse effects. Academic performance of both adolescents is was excellent. Neurocognitive assessments demonstrated average results in the domain of working memory and average to above average results in the domain of processing speed. Conclusions We present two cases of minors with TS who started CBM treatment at the age of eight and 12 years, respectively, and continued treatment for five to six years resulting in clinically relevant symptom improvement without any severe adverse effects side effects or negative impact on cognitive and academic performance.
Keywords: Tourette-syndrome, Medicinal cannabis, Children, Long-term treatment, case report
Received: 16 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Woerner, Szejko, Fremer and Müller-Vahl. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Natalia Szejko, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Kirsten R Müller-Vahl, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hanover, Germany
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