Tourette’s Syndrome

By Duncan M.

Period 6

What is Tourette’s Syndrome?

• Tourette’s Syndrome (TS), is a neurological disorder that is characterized by involuntary movements and vocal sounds that are called tics. They are involuntary, and impossible to control.

• Males are affected 75% more often than females, and about 200,000 americans have the most severe form of TS.

• Simple motor tics are short, repetitive movements involving a limited number of muscle groups.

• Complex motor tics are movements involving several muscle groups.

• The diagram on page 9 shows which areas of the body are most likely for a tic (simple or complex) to occur.

• The symptoms of TS include repeated winking, blinking, barking, facial grimaces, and sudden jerks of the head and shoulders.

History of Tourettes Syndrome

• In 1825, the first case of Tourette’s Syndrome was reported in medical literature

• The patient was described as having motor tics, which are small, involuntary movements in the muscles, and coprolalia.

• Coprolalia is a vocal tic where people with it repeat phrases or make other socially innapropriate comments. However, less than 15% of people with Tourette’s syndrome have coprolalia.

• A French neurologist named Georges Gilles de la Tourette came out with many details of patients with similar symptoms to the case in 1825. Georges was named after the syndrome by a European neurologist.

How Do You Get Tourettes Syndrome?

• Tourette’s Syndrome is not contagious, and studies show that it is a genetic disorder. It is either inherited, and goes from the parent to the child, or is occurs during development in the uterus. The diagram on slide 8 shows how certain substances make Tourette’s Syndrome more likely to occur.

• Doctors and researchers are always learning new information about TS, and what causes a person to get it.

• Most people with Tourette’s Syndrome experience the worst symptoms in their early teens.

Can You Treat Tourettes Syndrome?

• So far, there is no cure for TS, and no type of medication can affect the disease. However, there are some medications that can assist in controlling both motor and vocal tics like clonidine.

• If a doctor is faced with a patient with Tourette’s syndrome, they sometimes look at the family medical history, the symptoms of TS, and other methods to make a diagnosis.

• MRI’s , CT scans (computerized tomography), and EEG’s (electroencephalograms), can help rule out other conditions that are similar to TS.

Clonidine (or the clonidine patch) is one of the medications typically tried first when medication is needed for Tourette's.

Costs of MRI’s and CT Scans

• With health insurrance, MRI’s are around $120, but without it, they can cost around $1,100 – 2,700.

• CT scans are much more costly, and can cost up to $6,500.• However, these scans can play an important role in determining

the symptoms and diagnosis of a patient.

Life With Tourette’s Syndrome

• Life with TS is very difficult, and people with this condition are often stared at. This makes them uncomfortable, embarrassed, and sometimes frustrated.

• However, some patients say that their tics are milder, and occur less often when they are involved in activity. This may include sports, hobbies, exercise, and more.

• Also, tics can get milder and even go away during adulthood.

Tourette’s Patients• Points on the graph represent the percent of expression of D8/17

antigen in patients with Tourette’s Syndrome versus the average population.

• Patients with Tourette’s Syndrome have more than twice the D8/17 positive cells compared to the average population.

Likeliness of Tics Throughout the Body

The graph shows the likelihood of lifetime sensory tics in a given area, as based on the self-report of patients with Tourette syndrome.

Conclusion• I chose Tourette’s Syndrome for my human disease project because it

seemed very interesting, and I wanted to learn more about the symptoms, causes, and medications.

• The most interesting thing that I learned about TS was that the symptoms are worst in the early to late teens, and that they can even become less frequent and disappear during adulthood!

• I learned a lot about the disease from the article on Tourette’s Syndrome from Teens Health. It included facts on how it is caused, how to treat it, and things you can do if you see someone with TS.

• I am still wondering if there are any medications that can make tics go away altogether, and if there is progress on finding a cure for the syndrome.

• I think that my report is very complete, and shows many symptoms and theories of the possible causes of the syndrome. Also, I included the history of Tourette’s Syndrome, and how it was first discovered. However, the report was difficult because there is no cure for the disease, and scientists and neurologists are always finding out more facts and new theories about Tourette’s Syndrome.

Bibliography

• "Tourette Syndrome." Teens Health. Nemours, n.d. Web. 11 Mar 2010. <http://kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/brain_nervous/tourette.html>.

• "Tourette Syndrome." Wikipedia. N.p., 5 March 2010. Web. 11 Mar 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourette%27s_Syndrome>.

• Landau, Elaine. Tourette Syndrome. 1st edition. Venture, 1998. 95. Print.

• "Tourette Syndrome and Other Tic Disorders." emedicine from WebMD. Medscape, n.d. Web. 14 Mar 2010. <http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1182258-overview>.