Tourette syndrome is a rare syndrome in which the person suffering from the condition might do some uncontrolled movements that are repetitive in nature. This could include movements like blinking the eyes or shoulder shrugging or blurting out some unusual words or even offensive words in repetition. Many people in India aren’t even aware of this syndrome’s existence till now. But, awareness around it increased after the recent release of the Hindi Flick Hichki. This movie depicts the challenges and overall life’s journey of a lady who suffers from Tourette syndrome. While watching the movie you do get a fair idea about the condition. Well, let us look into the condition, its types, symptoms, and treatment here.
Tourette syndrome is known to show up during the ages of 2 to 15 years but the average is 6 years. Males are known to be at three to four times greater risk as compared to women. There’s no cure for Tourette syndrome as on day but you have treatment options depending upon the type and severity of the condition. Many who suffer from mild symptoms can easily do away with treatment. The symptoms reduce as you grow and can be controlled after teenage to an extent.
Causes
While the exact cause is yet to be known, it is generally known to be caused due to genetics and experts say that chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and likes of brain chemicals that are responsible for transmitting nerve impulses could be the risk factors, thus including family history beside gender factor.
Symptoms
The hallmark of Tourette’s syndrome are these intermittent or repetitive movements or tics. They can either be of mild type or of severe type. While the milder ones are easier to deal, the severe ones can hamper the quality of life to an extent and be difficult to manage as well.
There are two basic types of tics. They can either be motor tics (movement based) or vocal tics (sound based).
- Simple – In simple type only a limited number of muscle groups are involved. Simple tic movements include movements like head jerks, shoulder shrugs or eyes blinking or darting, nose twitching or movements of mouth. Vocal ones include clearing of throat, barking, coughing or grunting.
- Complex – The complex type involves the use of several muscle groups for their unique movements and coordinated patterns. Complex tics involve complicated recurring movements like following a certain pattern continuously, smelling and touching objects recurrently, bending, twisting, hopping or doing obscene gestures.
The transition of these tics keeps on varying with age and even with the state of mind. For example if you are stressed these can get worse and in adulthood they could reduce as well. They could occur in sleep too and the pattern might change over a period of time.
Well, if you find that your child is exhibiting some symptoms from the ones mentioned above in the early years, then seek the help of your pediatrician.
*Sourced From the Internet
