This is the second installment of a double issue on Tourette syndrome (TS) for CNS Spectrums. This issue highlights recent research findings in the field and provides a state-of-the art update on the relationship between TS and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as on the genetics, functional imaging and neurocircuitry, and neuropathology of TS.

I would again like to express my appreciation to the guest editor of this superb issue—Neal Swerdlow, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Diego, and scientific director of the Tourette Syndrome Association (TSA)—as well as Sue Levi-Pearl of the TSA.

The issue begins with a first-person account of TS by Major League baseball player Jim Eisenreich. His .300 lifetime batting average in professional baseball is a reflection of the superior focus he achieves in sports. In his work as a spokesman on behalf of TS, he serves as a role model, and his work will certainly help to raise awareness about TS so that others may avoid his experience of a 17-year gap between onset of symptoms and correct diagnosis.

This manuscript summarizes the presentations of an international panel of experts, representing France, Hungary, India, South Africa, and the United States, on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is culturally universal but probably heterogeneous. New data presented concern a follow-up study from a joint Yale-Brown clinical project; a prevalence study in Hungary; a molecular genetics study from South Africa; a comorbidity study from India; a clinical study from Paris comparing OCD with subclinical OCD; a discussion of compulsive buying as a cross-cultural phenomenon; and survey results showing the impact of OCD on quality of life and economic variables. A roundtable discussion led to a consensus that researchers must continue to: (1) investigate the prevalence of OCD in non Western samples and in less developed countries; (2) collect clinical data on OCD in child and adolescent samples, as well as in off-spring of adults with OCD; (3) refine the concept of age of onset; (4) study the impact of OCD on quality of life and the economy; (5) investigate the validity of the obsessive-compulsive spectrum in epidemiologic and clinical samples and develop appropriate instruments for its assessment; (6) study personality disorder and how it affects treatment response, and examine its prevalence in epidemiologic samples; (7) explore the concept of OCD heterogeneity, which may reflect differing etiologies but may also suggest differential treatment strategies; (8) conduct follow-up studies, particularly now that effective treatments may alter course of illness; and, finally, (9) investigate treatment response and whether certain subtypes demand unique approaches.

Workshop 2, “Childhood and OCD,” focused on six areas of research of special relevance to children: phenomenology, age of onset, subtypes, infectious and immune etiologies, psychosocial treatments, and medication treatments. Overarching themes in this session were the relative paucity of research in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in comparison to adults and the unique potential for research in children to provide answers to important questions about the etiology, subtypes, pathophysiology, and treatment of OCD.