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Facts About Tourettes

  • 1-100 Children have some form of Tourettes Syndrome or tic disorder.

  • Less than 10% of people with TS swear which is know as Coprolalia

  • TS are inherited neurological disorder named after Gilles De La Tourette

  • Tics are sudden twitches, movements or sounds that they do repeatedly. People with TS cannot stop these tics.

  • Not two people with TS will have the same tic. Each person with TS is different as every snowflake.

  • More than 86% of people with TS also have co-morbid conditions which include ADD, ADHD, OCD, Anxiety Disorders, Sensory Processing Disorder, and Dysgraphia, just to name a few.

There are two types of tic, motor and vocal.
  1. Motor Tics: are movements of the body, such as blinking, shrugging of shoulders, limb movement etc.
  2. Vocal Tics: Are sounds people make, such as barking, sniffing, throat clearing, random words etc.
Tics can be simple or complex.
  1. ​Simple Tics: Involve just a few body parts, such as eye blinking or sniffing.
  2. ​Complex Tics: Involve several parts of the body and can have a set pattern, such as bobbing head while jerking arms, then finishing with a jump.

  • Tics wax and wane, this can increase, degrease and change throughout a person's lifetime. Tics as a young child could be different and at a different severity than when they are a teenager.

  • Tics usually start around the age of 5 to 10 years old the first tics are usually motor tics.

  • Tics are usually worse during times of stress or excitement. They tend to improve when a person is calm and focused on an activity.

  • Even though symptoms can change or appear to disappear, the condition is chronic.

  • TS affects 3 to 5 times more than females.

  • There is no cure for TS, and there is currently no drug out there specifically made for TS.

  • A misconception is that people can learn to stop their tics. They can, at times, hold them in (suppression) but eventually have to release them. Comprehensive Behavior Intervention for Tics, or CBIT, is a specialized behavior therapy designed to help individuals - children, and adults - learn to better manage their tics.

  • Individuals with TS are aware of an urge to time, similar to that of a sneeze or an itch. They describe it as a build-up of tension, and pressure of energy. The actual tic is a means of releasing or relieving this tension.

  • TS is believed to result from a dysfunction of the thalamus, basil ganglia, and frontal cortex regions of the brain.

  • TS doesn't affect the intelligence of a person. In fact, most children with TS have about normal to high intelligence levels.

  • Knowledge, education, and understanding are very important for people with TS. Educating the patient, family, school, and community is key in the treatment of TS.

  • Children who try to suppress their tics while at school have a hard time focusing on what the teacher is teaching. Suppression of tics is physically exhausting. Making it hard for them to live up to their potential at school.

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