Tourette syndrome: Symptoms, and Treatment—Tourette syndrome may still be an unfamiliar term to people. In fact, according to research by Robertson (1994, 2003, 2009) and Apter et al (1993), the incidence of Tourette’s syndrome is 1-10 per 1000 people. The prevalence rate is 0.03-3% or ranges from 1:20000 to 1:2000. Internationally, this prevalence touches 1% of the average world community with a ratio of boys to girls = 3-5: 1. These data indicate that although the probability of finding cases is only 1%, these cases are real and can be found in the community.
What exactly is Tourette’s syndrome?
Dito (2013) explains that Tourette’s syndrome is a neurotransmitter-based psychoneurogenobehavioural disorder with features of movements or actions that are unconscious, rapid, genetic, with onset in childhood, and with a persistent and even chronic vocal-motor ticking pattern. The syndrome was first discovered by the doctor Jean-Marv Gaspard Itard in a 26-year-old French woman. Subsequently, 50 cases of motor tics and echolalia were reported by George Beard. Then, in 1885, Georges Gilles de la Tourette published an article on 8 people with motor or vocal tics and named this disease the maladie syndrome of tics. This syndrome became known as Tourette’s syndrome.
What are the symptoms of the syndrome?
Tics are the main symptom of this syndrome. It usually appears in childhood between the ages of 2 and 14 (with an average age of 6). According to the National Health System of UK, people with Tourette’s syndrome have a combination of physical and vocal tics, including
Physical tics:
- Blinking
- Eye rolling
- Grimacing
- Shoulder shrugging
- Jerking of the head or limbs
- Jumping
- Twirling
- Touching objects and other people
Vocal tics:
- Grunting
- Throat clearing
- Whistling
- Coughing
- Tongue clicking
- Animal sounds
- Saying random words and phrases
- Repeating a sound, word or phrase
- Swearing (It is rare and only found in about 1 in 10 people with Tourette’s syndrome)
What are the factors that cause this syndrome?
The presumed cause of Tourette’s syndrome is multifactorial. Neurochemical factors include poor regulation of dopamine in the caudate nucleus and imbalance and hypersensitivity to neurotransmitters, especially dopamine and serotonin (hormones that control movement, emotion, cognition and motivation in humans). The autoimmune theory explains that Tourette’s syndrome results from a pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS).
How is Tourette’s syndrome treated?
For mild symptoms, education and counselling are usually given to the patient and family members. Psychotherapeutic techniques such as supportive psychotherapy, cognitive therapy, assertiveness training and self-monitoring are also used. Comprehensive behavioural intervention for tics (CBIT), based on habit reversal training or therapy, is also effective in reducing tics and tics-related impairment in children and adolescents with moderate or severe symptoms. PRS.
