Tourette’s Syndrome

Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary movements, uncontrollable grunts, unintelligible sounds, echoing, and uncontrolled speech that may include obscenities. This involuntary movements or noises are called tics. Tics may be motor or vocal and simple or complex. Simple tics appear to have no meaning while complex tics use more than one muscle group or appear to be meaningful. Tics increase with tension or stress and decrease when a person is relaxed or concentrating on a task. Trying to suppress the tic may lead to a more severe outburst later. There is no treatment per se but relaxation therapies, creative endeavours and support may all help.