Medical Minute: Tourette Syndrome

BOSTON (CBS) - Tourette's syndrome occurs in approximately 1% of children.  Symptoms may be very mild to quite severe.

[Audio https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/i/cbslocal/wp-content/uploads/sites/3859903/2011/01/january-12-2010-medical-minute.mp3|titles=Tourette Syndrome|artists=Dr. Murray Feingold]

A variety of tics are present including eye blinking, twitching, facial grimacing, head jerking, and major body movements.

There are also vocal tics such as throat clearing, sniffing, and coughing.  The most disturbing tics, occurring in less than 50% of the patients, are the utterances of obscene words or insulting remarks.

Tourette's syndrome may be associated with symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.

In about a third of the cases the tics go away during adolescence and adulthood; in another third they become less severe; and in the final third the tics remain into adulthood.

Treatment is available and includes behavioral and drug therapy.  There are now numerous medications that work in different ways that are being used to decrease the symptoms.

The specific cause remains elusive but research continues to uncover the etiology of Tourette's syndrome.