Tourrettes syndrome Essay

The disorder is named after Dr. Georges Gilles de la Tourette, a French neurologist. The early symptoms of tourettes are mainly noticed first in childhood, along with the average between the ages of 3 and 9 years old. Tourettes occurs in people from all ethnic groups. Males are affected about three to four times more often than females. Although, tourettes can be a chronic condition with symptoms lasting a lifetime, most people with the condition experience their worst symptoms in their early teens, with a lot of improvement occurring in the late teens and continuing into adulthood Tics are classified as either simple or complex. Simple motor tics are sudden, brief, repetitive movements that involve a limited number of muscle groups. Some more common simple tics include eye blinking and other eye movements, facial grimacing, shoulder shrugging, head, or shoulder jerking. Simple vocalizations might include repetitive throat-clearing, sniffing, or grunting sounds. Complex tics are distinct, coordinated patterns of movements involving several muscle groups. These tics might include facial grimacing combined with a head twist and a shoulder shrug. Other complex motor tics may actually feel purposeful to them; including sniffing or touching objects, hopping, jumping, bending, or twisting. complex vocal tics may include throat-clearing, sniffing/snorting, grunting, or barking. More complex vocal tics include words or phrases. They say that the most dramatic and disabling tics include motor movements that result in self-harm, such as punching oneself in the face or vocal tics including coprolalia, or the uttering words that are socially inappropriate, such as swearing or even repeating the words or phrases that other people have said. However, coprolalia is only present in a small number of individuals with tourettes. Some tics are preceded by an urge or sensation in the affected muscle group, commonly called a premonitory urge. Some with tourettes will describe a need to complete a tic in a certain way or a certain number of times in order to relieve the urge or decrease the sensation. Tics are often worse with excitement or anxiety and normally better during calm, focused activities. Certain physical experiences can trigger or worsen tics, for example, tight collars may trigger neck tics, or hearing another person sniff or clear their throats could trigger similar sounds. Tics do not go away during sleep but are often significantly diminished. Tics come and go over time depending on the type, frequency, location, and severity. The first symptoms usually occur in the head and neck area and may progress to include muscles of the trunk and extremities. Motor tics have generally preceded the development of vocal tics while simple tics precede into more complex tics. Most patients experience a peak in their tic severity before the mid-teen years before improvement for the majority of patients in the late teen years and early adulthood. Approximately 10-15 percent of those affected have a progressive or disabling course that lasts into adulthood. The symptoms of tourettes are involuntary but some people can sometimes suppress or manage their tics in an effort to minimize their impact on needing to function them. But people with tourettes often have a substantial buildup in tension while suppressing their tics to the point where they have to do the tic against their will. (“Tourette Syndrome Fact Sheet”). People like us, who have tourettes, often feels very distant and alone. Everybody treats us differently or treats us as outcasts. Living with tourettes is one of the hardest things to do next to making friends. Sometimes, there are a few people who have accepted this as apart of who we are and understand it can’t be controlled. But, really we just want to live normal and have friends that treat us the same as everybody else instead of getting weird looks and judged. As the world gets more advanced, more and more people

Show More

Related Documents: Tourrettes syndrome Essay

Tourette Research Paper