How to Deal with Tourette's Syndrome

Host: I guess we're hearing something about, I think called Tourette syndrome. What is Tourette syndrome? Guest: Tourettes is a compulsive motor movement, a tic, typically will presents as a blink and if one also has a compulsive voice, like a grunt or a squeaky voice or some people think snoring, that would be a compulsive voice and if you have both of those for years, it's called tourette. Host: But the trick is, it has to different? Guest: A whole year. Now, the key thing to know about tourette this too is genetic. That it's very common. It's much more common than anybody knows. The other key thing to know is that most children that have tourette; a lot of them outgrow it and most children really are terribly affected by it. In other words, do very well and go on to become President of companies and what have you and the great majority of children do not need treatment for tourettte. There are medications for it, but the great majority do not need to be on medication for tourette. Children with Tourette do not need tests. They need to be looked at, in terms of associated problems because patients with tourette are more likely to have ADHD, Obsessive compulsive disorders, learning disabilities and depression, but they need not have those things. Host: Are there any medications if you do have tourette and it's obviously back in way it functions at all? Guest: Yes, there are medications that can diminish the tics. Now, tics just like ADHD in my estimation should not be treated unless they affect the child academically, socially or sometimes tics actually hurt physically, because you are blinking so much, it hurts your eyes. In those situations, one can consider medications and the typical first line medication with probably the best safety profile is Clonidine or Catapres which is a blood pressure medication. After that, people sometimes use major tranquilizers, which have a little bit of safety profile. But again, I want to stress that most people with tics or tourette have a relatively easy course and it doesn't affect their life terribly much. This is one of those situations, that one has to be very careful about what's on the internet. For example, there is a lot of information on the internet about tourette and it's all very good information. There's a tourette association. It's a wonderful organization but if you read what they have to say, they are talking about the 1% of patients, that are very severely impaired and parents very often will go right to that and say, "Oh! My goodness my child has this horrible disorder" and the reality is; Most patients that have tourette, have a very mild course and don't even need medication and do perfectly well in life and very often out grow it. Host: There is a condition with it called, "benign habit tic". What is that? Guest: I am not sure what that is. I mean benign tic is just a tic and if you have a tic without voices, without noises for a year, we call it a tic disorder. Again, there is a real overlap between tourette and tic disorder. I personally think that they are same, but we don't know because we haven't found, again not, it's not my research interest, but no one has found a gene for tourette or tic disorder. Maybe the same. Host: Some kids got blinking. They are in school and under a little a bit of stress and it goes away. That's not related to this is it? Guest: Well that's a tic and it's probably part of the spectrum and I think a lot of us and I think I sometimes blink too much too and that may as well be a tic and that's why one can get too terribly worried about this stuff. Host: Thank you.