Tourette's Syndrome

Overview

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Tourette's syndrome patients have involuntary jerks and twitches of the face, head, shoulders and other areas of the body and also make involuntary sounds, such as sniffing, grunting, squealing or swearing. The symptoms change in their frequency and move from one part of the body to another; this disorder usually starts at age five to seven, though it can begin anytime before age 18.

Some of the signs and symptoms of Tourette's syndrome include:

• Motor tics: You may experience sudden, involuntary movements, like frequent eye blinking, eye movements, facial twitches and involuntary muscle jerks affecting your head, shoulders, stomach, arms or legs. Other movements may include repeating certain actions, jumping, touching and twirling.
• Phonic tics: These are sudden, involuntary sounds like humming, squealing and throat clearing, or more complex sounds including words or sentences.
• Echophenomena: This is a tendency to repeat actions or sounds that you see or hear.
• Premonitory urge: This is a certain uncomfortable feeling that is temporarily relieved by performing tics.
• Fluctuating nature: Your tics tend to change over weeks and months, depending on which areas of the body are affected and how serious your condition is.
• Environmental effects: Your tics will probably get worse and more frequent during periods of stress or excitement, and will get better during exercise or while focusing on an absorbing activity.
• Partial voluntary control: Most people with Tourette's syndrome can suppress at least some of their tics from a few minutes up to a few hours. This, however, requires effort and is usually uncomfortable.

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