Revisiting the Efficacy and Tolerability of Topiramate for Tic Disorders: A Meta-Analysis.

Background: Tic disorders (TDs) are chronic neuropsychiatric disorders that usually begin in childhood. Currently, antipsychotic drugs, such as aripiprazole and risperidone, are frequently used to treat TD. However, adverse reactions limit their further usage. The efficacy of topiramate has been reported in recent studies. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of topiramate in the treatment of children with TDs. Methods: In this study, we performed a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and tolerability of topiramate for TDs and identified the randomized controlled trials to evaluate topiramate for children with TDs from PubMed, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database, Web of Science, and relevant reference lists. Quality assessment followed the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. A modified Jadad scale was used to assess the quality of included studies. Risk ratio (RR) was calculated as the effect size of efficacy and tolerability of topiramate for TDs. Results: A total of 15 studies involving 1070 participants aged 2-17 were included in the present meta-analysis, and 693 (64.71%) participants were male cases, with 14 studies evaluating the efficacy of topiramate for the treatment of TD. The results suggested that topiramate was more effective than control drugs (RR: 1.13, 95% confidence interval: [1.06-1.20], I(2) = 36%, Q = 20.31, p = 0.09). For the adverse events, there were 15 trials included in the meta-analysis, and the results showed that topiramate had fewer adverse events than control drugs (RR: 0.54, 95% confidence interval: [0.46-0.65], I(2) = 45%, Q = 25.49, p = 0.03). Conclusion: Compared with haloperidol and tiapride, topiramate appears to be a promising medication with good efficacy and tolerability for children with TDs. In future studies, large-sample, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials are needed to confirm its efficacy and tolerability compared with atypical antipsychotic agents (such as risperidone or aripiprazole).