Table 2.

Summary of characteristics of included studies.

Reference	Comparisons	Drug dose	Age (years)	Duration of illness (years)	YGTSS	Outcomes	Duration of intervention	Duration of follow-up
Guo et al., 2004 [36]	Electroacupuncture (n = 68)	1.5–8 mg/d	NR	1 to 8 in two groups	NR	Response rate	30 days (30 sessions)	No follow-up
	Haloperidol (n = 34)
Liu et al., 2010 [30]	Electroacupuncture (n = 30)	1.5–8 mg/d	NR	1 to 5	NR	Response rate	20 days (20 sessions)	No follow-up
	Haloperidol (n = 30)			1 to 5
Xu and Zhu, 2009 [33]	Scalp acupuncture (n = 30)	0.25–1 mg/d	6 to 18	1 to 7	30.07 ± 2.76	YGTSS, response rate	3 months (39 sessions)	No follow-up
	Risperidone (n = 30)		4 to 17	1 to 8	35.03 ± 3.46
Zhang et al., 2015 [34]	Manual acupuncture (n = 44)	150–450 mg/d	2 to 15 in two groups	0.5 to 3.2 in two groups	NR	Response rate	3 months (60 sessions)	No follow-up
	Tiapride (n = 43)
Mu et al., 2009 [35]	Electroacupuncture plus psychological behaviour therapy (n = 60)	From 1 mg/d	10.24 ± 3.41	2.15 ± 1.07	33.61 ± 5.76	YGTSS, response rate	6 weeks (42 sessions)	No follow-up
	Haloperidol plus psychological behaviour therapy (n = 60)		9.53 ± 2.75	2.48 ± 1.55	31.08 ± 6.54
Chi and Sun, 2004 [37]	Manual acupuncture plus haloperidol (n = 24)	1.5–8 mg	2 to 21	1 to 9	39.875 ± 15.875	YGTSS, response rate	20 days (20 sessions)	No follow-up
	Haloperidol (n = 21)		2 to 21	1 to 9	40.190 ± 15.863
Yang et al., 2007 [38]	Manual acupuncture plus haloperidol and psychotherapy (n = 60 initially; final n = 56)	From 1 mg/d	11.52 ± 2.96	NR	34.26 ± 5.88	YGTSS, response rate	40 days (40 sessions)	No follow-up
	Haloperidol and psychotherapy (n = 30)		12.03 ± 3.37		36.01 ± 6.73

YGTSS: Yale Global Tic Severity Scale. NR: no reported.