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Georges Gilles De La Tourette's Syndrome Analysis

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Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, commonly known as Tourette’s syndrome, was named after a French neurologist, Dr. Georges Gilles de la Tourette. Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary movements and vocalization more commonly known as tics. Georges Gilles de la Tourette first diagnosed Tourette’s syndrome to an 86-year-old French woman in 1885. Since then, researchers still have not found a concrete cause for Tourette’s syndrome. Even though they have not found a direct cause for Tourette’s syndrome, they have chosen some possibilities to further research. The points that they focus on are abnormalities in brain regions, the connection of the regions and the neurotransmitters responsible for communication. The …show more content…

According to the results from parent report, this entails that about 138,00 children in the United States have Tourette’s syndrome. Results from another method showed that one out of every 162 children had Tourette ’s syndrome. Out of the children diagnosed with Tourette ’s syndrome, about 37% of these children have been diagnosed with severe forms of the syndrome. Studies have shown that boys are three to five times more likely to be diagnosed than girls are and non-Hispanic White people are twice as likely to be diagnosed than Hispanic and non-Hispanic black people. Children between the ages of twelve and seventeen are twice as common to be diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome than children between the ages of six and eleven. Additional diagnoses are common with 86 percent on children who have been diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome. The three most common additional diagnoses are attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety problems and learning …show more content…

Tics can range from an eye twitch to vocalization such as coprolalia, which is when someone mumbles inappropriate words such as cursing. Tics are split into two categories, motor and vocal. These tics can range from simple, minor, to more complex, more obvious. Simple motor tics are harder to distinguish because they are slight movements such as eye twitching and blinking, shoulder shrugging, jerking and face grimacing. Complex motor tics are a combination of tics that include, a face grimace paired up with shoulder shrugging and a head twist. In addition, considered complex motor tics may seem purposeful such as hopping and jumping around or touching and picking up objects. Simple vocal tics may include relatively normal sounds such as clearing of the throat and grunting and sniffling. Vocal tics that are considered complex include words and phrases. More severe and disabling motor tics are punching oneself or physically harming oneself. Severe and disabling vocal tics are known as coprolalia, uttering inappropriate words, i.e. cursing and swearing, and echolalia, repeating what other people have said with no

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