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Tourette's Syndrome Essay

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Tourette's Syndrome Gilles de la Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) is a sporadic or inherited complex neuropsychiatric disorder (not an illness) influenced by neurological, psychological, and sociological factors. It is characterized by involuntary tics - sudden, rapid, recurrent nonrhythmic movements or noises that occur repeatedly in the same way (Temple, 2003). The symptoms include: both multiple motor tics and one or more phonic tics (which may or may not include vocalizations and which sometimes include outbursts of swearing) present at some time during the disorder although not necessarily simultaneously; tics occur many times a day (usually in bouts) nearly every day or …show more content…

However, as Nass and Bressman (2002) state, the relationships between both ADHD and TS and OCD and TS are complex and not yet clear. In addition to this, until now linkage analysis has pointed to a number of chromosomal locations, but has failed to identify a clear candidate gene(s).

Treating TS

Treating TS has been a controversial issue among scientist for years. The kind of medication that should be prescribed to people with TS is currently under debate mainly because TS is frequently accompanied along with other disorders such as OCD or ADHD. Due to that there is no one medication that is absolutely beneficial for all persons with TS. Moreover, none of the available medications for TS completely eliminates symptoms and in addition, all medications have side effects. Instead, the available TS medications are only able to help reduce specific symptoms. Some patients who require medication to reduce the frequency and intensity of the tic symptoms may be treated with neuroleptic drugs such as haloperidol and pimozide (Abuzzahab & Brown, 2001). These medications are usually given in very small doses that are increased slowly until the best possible balance between symptoms and side effects is achieved. Recently scientists have discovered that long-term use of neuroleptic drugs may cause an involuntary movement

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