Tourette's syndrome is a severe tic disorder involving a number of motor and vocal patterns. This disorder is also known as Tourette’s disorder or Gilled de la Tourette syndrome. It is an inherited neuropsychotic disorder that typically involves uncontrollable head movements with accompanying sounds such as grunts, clicks, yelps, sniffs or words. Some and possibly most tics are preceded by an urge or sensation that seems to be relieved by the execution of the tic. Tics are thus often difficult to differentiate from compulsions and are sometimes referred to as compulsive tics.

About one-third of individuals with Tourette’s syndrome manifest coprolalia, which is a complex vocal tic involving the uttering of obscenities. The average age of onset for Tourette’s syndrome is 7 and most cases have an onset before age 14 and it frequently persists into adulthood. The disorder is about three times more frequent among males.

Cause:

Although the exact cause of Tourette’s syndrome is undetermined, evidence suggests and organic basis for the syndrome can have substantial adjustment problems at school, interventions designed to aid their adjustment and to modify the reactions of peers to them need to be made. School psychologists can play an effective part through behavioral strategies in the social adjustment of the child affected with Tourette's syndrome by helping to arrange the child’s environment to be more accepting of such unusual behaviors.

There are many types of tics and many of these appear to be associated with the presence of other psychological disorders, particularly obsessive compulsive disorder. Most tics, however, do not have a natural basis but usually stem from psychological causes such as self-consciousness or tension in social situations and they are usually associated with severity of behavioral problems.

Treatment:

Tics have been successfully treated by means of medications. Neuroleptic drugs are the most predictably effective tic suppressing drugs. Clonazepam, clonidine and tiapride have all shown effectiveness in reducing motor tics. However, tiapride has shown the greatest decrease in the intensity and frequency of tics. Haloperidol and pimozide reduced the severity of tics by 65 percent but haloperidol was more effective.

Behavioral intervention techniques have also been used successfully in treating tics. One successful program involved several sequential elements, beginning with awareness training, relaxation training and the development of incompatible responses and then progressing to cognitive therapy and the modification of overall style of action.