Tourette’s Syndrome: Medical, Educational and Behavior Therapy - Tourette’s Syndrome: Medical, Educational and Behavior Therapy - Open Access Pub

The French physician, Gill de la Tourette, was the first person to define Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) in 1885 and has brought much attention to it in Western countries for the past few decades. Unfortunately, most Asian countries are not familiar with Tourette’s Syndrome. Tourette’s Syndrome is regarded as a disorder of the nerve system that often appears with involuntary tic behaviors. The purpose of this article is to give a better understanding of Tourette’s Syndrome, starting with a brief background, followed by its pathogenesis and an analysis of treatment, including medication and education. The related studies of Tourette’s syndrome are also discussed in this study. DOI10.14302/issn.2474-9273.jbtm-15-794 Tourette’s Syndrome is regarded as a disorder of the nerve system that often appears with involuntary tic behaviors, such as repetitive eye-blinking, shoulder shrugging, throat-clearing and some other complex motor and vocal tics 1, 2, 3, 4. According to the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV)”, if the tics occur many times a day, nearly every day for at least four weeks, or intermittently throughout a period of more than a year without a tic-free interval of more than three months, the diagnosis of Tourette syndrome should be considered 5. Tics are the motor movements which are rapid, sudden, unexpected, irresistible, inappropriate, repetitive, stereotypic activity, and occur irregularly. There are four major types of tics, including simple motor tics, such as eye blinking, nose twitching, head jerks, shoulder shrugs; complex motor tics with more purposeful movements, such as sustained looks, facial gestures, and obscene gestures. The remaining two tics are phonic tics, including simple phonic tics, such as throat clearing, sniffling, barking, gurgling, and innumerable other sounds; complex phonics with more meaningful utterances, such as the echo phenomenon, immediate repetition of other’s words, or inappropriate and aggressive statements 6. Unlike other diseases, most people are not familiar with Tourette’s Syndrome and may take its uncontrollable tics for intentional misbehaviors. Tourette’s Syndrome has a prevalence rate of approximately 3 in every 1000 people and the ratio of men to women is estimated to be 3:1 7. A recent study revealed the increased prevalence of Tourette's Syndrome with a prevalence rate about 0·85% to 1%. The study further indicated that Tourette Syndrome affects 1% to 3.8% of western young children and affects 0.46 to 0.56% Taiwanese and Chinese young children 8, 9. According to