Primary Symptoms Of Tourette Syndrome
The primary symptoms of Tourette syndrome are tics. Symptoms typically start when a child is almost 5 to 10 years of age. The first symptoms mostly are the motor tics that come in the neck area and head. Tics mostly are worse while the times they are exciting or stressful. They tend to enhance when a person is focusing or calming on an activity. The kind of tics and how frequently a person has tics changes over time. Therefore, the symptoms might occur, reappear and disappear, these situations are considered chronic. In most cases, tics lowers while adolescence and early adulthood and mostly disappear entirely. (2)
However, most people having TS faces tics into elder age and in some cases, tic might become worse while adulthood. Although the media sometimes portray people having TS as involuntarily screaming out swear words known as coprolalia or repeatedly saying the words or names of other people known as echolalia. Such symptoms are rare and do not require a diagnosis for Tourette syndrome. TS is a disorder that consists of unwanted sounds or repetitive movements (tics) that cannot be simply controllable. For example, you may blink your eyes repeatedly, exclaim unusual sounds or even offensive words and shrug your shoulders.
Tics normally occur between the age of 2 and 15 years, with an average age of 6 years. Males are nearly three to four times more prone than females to have TS. Even though there is no such cure for Tourette syndrome, treatments are present. Many people having Tourette syndrome do not require treatment when the symptoms are mild. Tics sometimes reduce or become controllable after the age of 18 years. Tics are brief, sudden, and intermittent sounds or movements are the hallmark symptoms of TS. They might range from severe to mild. Various symptoms might primarily interfere with daily functioning, communication, and quality of life.
Tics categorizes as:
- Complex tics: these are coordinated patterns of movements, distinct and consist of various muscle groups.
- Simple tics: these are sudden, repetitive, and brief consist of a reduced number of groups of muscles.
Tics might also consist of sounds (vocal tics) or movements (motor tics). Motor tics mostly start even before the vocal tics do. But the tics spectrum is that people’s experiences are diverse.