Please give me some advice about these 2 treatments for Tourettes. My 12 yr old son has Tourette's, was diagnosed when he was 5. At that time, he was having lots of verbal tics, strange behavior, slow language development, and obsessive scribbling on paper then waddling it up and throwing on floor (he started kindergarten, and I got impression he was stressed about learning to write), he did this for hours at a time! So, a very renowned neurologist put him on a low dose of Guanfacine that worked like a charm! The tics disappeared totally! My son was finally able to sleep well at night, take naps, and his school work was great. We continued this treatment for 2 years to get him thru First Grade and the stress of being in school. There was never intention to use meds permanently. Over Summer vacation we stopped treatment and he did just fine, only a few lite facial tics remained. NOW, since October, my son has gotten worse (puberty probably?)...started as OCD and more tics resulted with each "bad" thought. Since we moved to another country, the new doc (a Child Psychiatrist) put him on Risperdal, assuring me it was much better than Guanfacine. Well, at 0,5mg he had NO improvement, he just got insomnia and nitely rages/crying. Doc increased dose to 1mg and the tics exploded!, insomnia worsened. This was after 3 months treatment, so we weaned him off slowly this past month. He nows sleeps normally, but tics are still bad. We were very disappointed to discover that Guanfacine is still not available in FR and BEL, so I refuse to try any other neuroleptics because of their bad side effects. I've learned that Risperdal has potentially VERY bad side effects like a 1 in 10 risk of Diabetes! The doc said Guanfacine was worthless anyways, but it worked for us...we'll keep waiting for it to be released here in Belgium. Oh, by the way, my eldest son has Tourettes, too, but I didn't know meds existed for it back then. My little brother had TS also, so I am overly familiar with this illness. Are there any "natural" treatments that you can personally say have worked for you?