Tourette’s Syndrome
The information herein is for informational purposes only and not intended as medical advice nor for diagnostic purposes. For specific questions about your’s or your loved one’s diagnosis or treatment, always refer to your doctor.
• Both multiple motor and one or more vocal tics are present at some time during the illness, although not necessarily simultaneously
• Occurrence many times a day nearly every day or intermittently throughout a span of more than one year
• Significant impairment or marked distress in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
• Onset before the age of 182
• Symptoms can disappear for weeks or months at a time and severity waxes and wanes.
What are the first tics that may be characteristic of Tourette’s syndrome?
Usually, the facial tic, such as rapid blinking of the eyes or twitches of the mouth, may be the first indication a parent has that their child may have Tourette’s syndrome. Involuntary sounds, such as throat clearing and sniffing, or tics of the limbs may be an initial sign in other children.
1 According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th Edition), or DSM-IV
2 This is a change from the former edition, DSM-IIIR, that set maximum age of onset at 21 years of age.
3 A biochemical substance that transmits nerve impulses from one nerve cell to another at a synapse.
Reviewed by Charles T. Gordon, III, M.D., 2003