Tourette Syndrome

Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder that causes people to repeatedly and involuntarily vocalize or move various parts of their bodies, usually their face, arms, limbs, or trunk. These motions are called tics. The disease affects approximately 100,000 – 200,000 people in the United States. It is named for the French doctor, Gilles de la Tourette, the first man to describe the condition in 1885.

Tourette Syndrome appears in all ethnic groups, and men are diagnosed 3 to 4 times more than females. The onset of TS usually begins in early childhood, between the ages of 7 and 10, and primary symptoms typically occur in the head and neck. Eye blinking, nose twitching, and changing facial expressions are widespread, but individual symptoms differ. In addition to TS, many children are diagnosed with other associated behavioral conditions, including ADD/ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and learning disabilities.

Although there is no known cause of TS, current research has shown that it may be inherited. The research has also identified atypical characteristics in the basal ganglia, frontal lobes and cortex (regions of the brain) and the neurotransmitters that may contribute to the disorder. Read the rest of this entry »

Tourette syndrome is a brain disorder in which the affected individual has multiple tics both physical and verbal. The disorder affects more than one hundred thousand Americans. There has been written evidence of Tourette syndrome since at least the 15th Century. The Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kraemer book Malleus Maleficarum (“Witch’s Hammer”), which was published in 1489, described a priest with strange tics.

During the 19th century, the formal recognition and naming of the disorder occurred. In 1825, French doctor, Jean Gasparted Itard, detailed the case of Marquise de Dampierre, a woman of nobility, who suffered from episodes of coprolalia. Madam Dampierre, who otherwise had refined manners fitting of her societal standing and education, would make vulgar statements exhibiting strange behavior.

In the 1880s, influential French physician Jean-Martin Charcot was interested in studying the disorder. In 1885, his protege, Georges Gilles de la Tourette, a French neurologist, published a report of nine patients with the disorder. The specific goal of the studies was to define an illness distance from chorea and hysteria. Tourette studied psychotherapy, hypnosis, and hysteria as part of his work. Read the rest of this entry »

Tourette syndrome, also known as Tourette’s syndrome or simply Tourette’s, is a disorder that is evident by the presence of multiple physical tics and at least one vocal tic. It is an inherited neuropyschiatric disorder that is first evident in childhood. The severity of the tics for a Tourette’s sufferer are typically erratic. People with the disorder have normal life expectancy and intelligence.

Sudden, involuntary, repetitive, non-rhythmic body movements or vocalization involving different body parts characterizes Tourette’s. Examples of these movements or tics would be head jerking, eye blinking, sneezing, or facial movements. Tourette’s syndrome is not related to autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or seizure activity. Tourette’s is the most severe of the spectrum of tic disorders.

The symptoms of Tourette’s tend to wax and wane and the severity of this disorder varies. Many people with the disorder experience additional neurobehavioral problems including inattention, hyperactivity, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms such as repetitive behaviors and intrusive worries/thoughts. However, most people with the disorder have only mild cases and it may go undetected and not diagnosed. Read the rest of this entry »