What are the Most Common Motor and Vocal Tics?
Discussion
Tics are usually single repetitive, non-rhythmic, non-purposeful movements or utterances. Tics can be multiple and complex however. Tics may be preceeded by a premonitory urge where the person has a feeling that a certain type of tic is going to occur and then this feeling goes away after the tic is produced.
Tics, especially simple motor tics, are very common with ~10-15% of elementary age children having a tic at some time. In one community-based study, the overall prevalence was 3-9% with an overall frequency of 24% of elementary school children during one school year. Tics are more common in boys and present around age 6-12 years, but may be not recognized until as late as 21 years. They are usually most severe around 10-12 years of age. Motor tics usually appear 2-3 years before vocal tics but vary with the individual. Tics can last for a few weeks, months or be chronic (> 1 year of symptoms). Simple tic or provisional tics last less than 1 year. Chronic or persistent tics last more than 1 year. Note that the definitions are based on timing of symptoms not the severity or the complexity of the tics themselves.
Tourette syndrome (TS) is a particular type of tic but for the lay public may be the most well known. It is a chronic tic disorder where patients have both motor and vocal tics, although these may occur at different times. Patients with TS also have psychiatric symptoms such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder, depressio...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
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