Quetiapine associated tics in a pediatric patient post overdose on re-initiation: An interesting clinical scenario

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a multitude of new medical and psychiatric complications and new presentations that were either never seen before or not seen to the extent that they are presenting now. [1,2]. Increased number of suicide attempts and worsening severity of suicide attempts have been noted in the past year since the COVID-19 pandemic has started [1]. Psychotropic medications can often have lesser-known side effects and movement disorders, including tics, can be one of them [3]. Tics are recurrent, simple or complex behaviors that can be motor or phonic in nature [4,5]. Simple motor tics are often observed as rapid movements while complex motor tics are more synchronized and elaborate. Additionally, noises or brief sounds are examples of simple vocal tics, while speaking a string of words or syllables are more characteristic of a complex vocal tic [4]. The underlying pathogenesis of tics and tic disorders has not been well elucidated, dopaminergic hypothesis being the most widely accepted; however, multiple areas of the brain are speculated to be involved [4,6]. Common treatment options for tic disorders include alpha-2 agonists, clonidine and guanfacine, and antipsychotics [4,7]. Previous literature identifies two case reports that documented tics related to quetiapine. One report described a pediatric bipolar patient who developed tics proportional to quetiapine dose [8], and the other report identified an adult patient with schizophrenia who developed tics during quetiapine therapy [9]. In this article, we describe a pediatric patient who presented after overdosing on quetiapine, lamotrigine and sertraline and developed tics after re-initiation of quetiapine at a much lower dose. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of its kind where tics, which were previously absent, developed on re-initiation of quetiapine after an overdose.