Tourettes Syndrome Essay, Research Paper

Tourettes Syndrome is an inherited, neurological disorder characterized by tics. Tics are involuntary, rapid, sudden movements or verbal communication that occur frequently in the same way. There are many other movements that occur; some of which are twitching, loud noises or vulgar language. Verbal tics are not a common occurrence. This is the most common in public places that the unknown public associates with the disease.

Tics are classified into two categories: simple and complex. The Simple tics are short movements and do not involve many muscles. These are often repeated. Complex tics are synchronized patterns or consecutive movements involving more then one muscle group. The complex tics are usually involving touching other people, touching their nose or jumping. (Hyde 53)

Motor Tics Vocal Tics

SimpleSimple

Blinking eyes Throat-clearing

Jerking neck Sniffing

Shrugging shoulders Coughing

Grimacing Grunting

Flipping head Spitting

Kicking Yelling

Tensing muscles Belching

Sticking tongue out

Finger movements

*Complex*

Animal sounds

*Complex* Repeating words

Facial gestures Using inappropriate words

Grooming behaviors Repeating own words

Smelling things Repeating last sound

Touching

Jumping

Hitting

Biting

Imitating other people

Inappropriate gestures

Self-injuries

(Eisenreich 4)

People with Tourettes Syndrome can sometimes restrain their tics. To hold back a tic takes the same amount of effort it does to hold back a sneeze. Eventually the tics will just stop. During stressful situations the tics could get worse. When a person is relaxed, the tics improve. In most cases the tics decrease when the person is sleeping.

Tics can be added or removed. Over time they can change. The old tics can be replaced by new tics, or new ones can just be added. Most children to not have all of these tics, and they do not even develop all of them.

These tics can be mild, moderate, or severe depending on their occurrence, and their activities. Tics can fluctuate in intensity. One day there might not be any tics, while other days you could have many tics.

The first symptoms of this disease are facial twitches or tics. People with Tourettes Syndrome can shout strange and inappropriate sounds, words and phrases. People with a severe case of Tourettes may have self-harming actions; some of this would include, lip and cheek biting and head banging against solid surfaces or objects.

This syndrome often appears during the childhood. A person, who has Tourettes Syndrome, does not usually show symptoms early in their life. Children between the ages six and nine usually are the ones who get Tourettes Syndrome; however, this can occur as late as age twenty-one. People who are in the teenage years often have symptoms that involve facial twitching, and facial expressions.

It is more common for males to get this than females. Tourettes is known to worsen from the childhood and on. The chances of a child getting Tourettes Syndrome are one in a thousand.

Besides tics, there are also other disorders associated with Tourettes Syndrome. People could experience uncontrollable behavior, doing things repeatedly, difficulty concentrating, and is easily disturbed. They may also have difficulties in reading or writing. People with Tourettes Syndrome could have many sleep disorders, where they wake up frequently. With all of these symptoms, with the tics, can be disabling, and then the doctors would be able to prescribe certain medications.

This is a rare disorder named after Georges Gilles De Tourette, a French physician. He first described this disease in 1885. The real name for Tourettes Syndrome, or TS is Gilles De Tourette named after him.

Other names or disease for Tourettes Syndrome are Transient Tic Disorders, Chronic Tic Disorders and Chronic Multiple Tics.

There is no cause for this syndrome, and as of now there is not a cure that exists. Some researchers think that there is an abnormality in a gene that causes the brains metabolism of neurotransmitters; this is what carries signals from one nerve to another. Symptoms are treatable by tranquilizers.

Tourettes Syndrome is diagnosed through their family history. The motor and phonic tics must be present for no less than one year. Behavior and tics are often misunderstood, causing children to be misread at school home and at the doctor?s office. Some people do not understand Tourettes Syndrome; therefore, they think that the person has a psychological problem. Tics do not occur often at the doctor?s office; so, it makes the diagnosis complicated. Parents, friends, relatives, and patients find information about this disease mostly through the media, and have heard about it. Tourettes Syndrome is a hereditary disease.

Symptoms do no damage most people with Tourettes Syndrome; most people do not need medications. There are medications to help when symptoms interfere with functioning properly. There is not one medication for just everyone; there are many different types of medications for people with Tourettes Syndrome. The medications do not completely remove symptoms.

People have made medications used to help patients with Tourettes Syndrome. There is also other drugs and medications used for decreasing the amount of tics a patient can have each day.

There are medicines that can help reduce tics. Usage of these drugs over long period time, can lead to involuntary movements. There are also medications to treat some behavior disorders. Therapy may help people with Tourettes Syndrome. Relaxation methods may be useful top relieve stress, but it can increase tic symptoms.

If a person discontinues the use of the medications then the tics may return.

There are side affects of the usage of any medication for Tourettes Syndrome. People may become depressed, drowsy or have blurred eyesight. People who experience these conditions may also have less control of their voluntary movements.

Nicotine can help patients with Tourettes Syndrome. Sanberg took seventy children that were from the ages eight to seventeen. Thirty-five children wore a skin patch that gives off seven milligrams a day for eight weeks. The other thirty-five patients wore placebo patches. (Pennisi 2)

The patients continued to use their medications. The children who used the nicotine patches acted more normally. They had less tics and verbal outbreaks. When the dose of the nicotine was lowered, they still stayed the same with their improvements.

Sanberg has said there were side affects; therefore, children should not become addicted to nicotine. Some of the side affects were upset stomach and the patch was causing itching. Sanberg is finding substances similar to nicotine to help patients that have Tourettes Syndrome.

Alternatives are available for people with Tourettes Syndrome. You can talk to a counselor or a physiatrist about Tourettes Syndrome. They will not prevent tics, but they will help the patient and family by making them deal with the disease that they have and they learn about Tourettes Syndrome. Family therapy is used for some people with Tourettes Syndrome. Tourettes Syndrome is a great twist on a family. This will help siblings and parents provide assistance when the patient needs it.

Since relaxing the muscles can mean lesser or no tics, there are ways to help people. Progressive muscular relaxation is one way to help people with Tourettes Syndrome. Yoga is also another way to help people with TS.

Tourettes syndrome is inherited. The genes can cause a range of symptoms between each family. There is a fifty- fifty chance of passing Tourettes Syndrome to his or her children. The tests show that passing Tourettes Syndrome on does not mean that it will be full-blown TS. This could be a milder disorder such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.

With this disorder there are less or fewer tics. An important factor in Tourettes Syndrome is your gender. A male is three to four times higher with a child developing symptoms. Most people who inherit this disease will not have the same symptoms.

There are some cases with Tourettes Syndrome that the inheritance cannot be determined. These cases occur every so often but their cause is unknown.

Tourettes syndrome is not contagious. They only possible way to get it is through inheritance; so, there is not a risk for other people to get it, unless someone in their family has Tourettes Syndrome.

Currently there is no cure for Tourettes Syndrome. Peoples? conditions mature, as they get older. People with Tourettes Syndrome can live a normal life span; this disease does not put an end to your death earlier than any one without Tourettes Syndrome. This disease is long and ongoing, and most people have it throughout their entire lives.

There is no cure for Tourettes Syndrome, but there have been patients that have improved on their disease; this was almost to a point where they did not need medications anymore. There are a few patients who have recovered completely in their teenage years.

After a while people with Tourettes Syndrome learn to live with their conditions. There is always one risk in having Tourettes Syndrome. If they continually have severe tics, they might become more antisocial and very depressed. They could develop severe mood swings and have panic attacks.

Tourettes Syndrome does not make the person any less smart. When the person with TS gets older, the tics seem to decrease. This enables some patients to stop using the medications, if they were using it for any tics. Although the tics may seem to decrease there are other symptoms that may occur; these include depression, panic attacks, mood swings, and people may become antisocial.

There are effects from Tourettes Syndrome that may vary through out the patient?s life. There may be times through out the coarse of the person?s life that they may go through a time period where the tics do not occur. Then the tics will eventually return. Some people, who are affected with Tourettes Syndrome, are able to restrain their tics for very small periods of time.

There is only one way to prevent this disease, Tourettes Syndrome. It is for a couple not to have children if one of them has Tourettes Syndrome. Every child who has a parent with Tourettes Syndrome only has a fifty percent chance of not inheriting Tourettes Syndrome.

Tourettes Syndrome is not a common disease; therefore the school needs to be informed if they have a child with this disease in their school. Children who have Tourettes Syndrome are often kept at home and are home schooled; because, many people believe that they are a disturbance to the class, and other students? learning.