Facial tic disorder is an extremely common disorder that presents with short, rapid, sudden, involuntary movements of varying degrees, starting with frequent blinking, eyebrow squeezing, nose sucking, pouting, mouth opening, tongue stretching, head nodding, etc.
The main factors that can cause tics in children are: 1. maternal factors; 2. infectious factors; 3. psychiatric factors; 4. family factors; 5. others: such as epilepsy.
Etiology
Some of the main factors listed below can cause tics in children, these factors are
1, maternal factors: maternal pregnancy hyperthermia, history of obstructed labor, history of postnatal asphyxia, neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, cesarean delivery, etc.
2, infection factors: upper respiratory tract infection, tonsillitis, mumps, rhinitis, pharyngitis, chicken pox, various types of encephalitis, viral hepatitis, etc.
3, mental factors: fright, emotional excitement, sadness, watching thrilling TV, novels and stimulating cartoons, etc.
4, family factors: parental tension, divorce, reprimanding or scolding children, etc.
5, other: such as epilepsy, trauma, carbon monoxide poisoning, toxic indigestion, allergies, etc.
Clinical manifestations
1, transient tic disorder: also known as tic disorder (tics) or transient tic disorder, often after 3 years of age onset 4 to 7 years old is the most common. It is the most common and lighter type, manifesting as simple motor twitching motor twitching first site is often a muscle group of the face first in the facial five senses of alternate twitching such as squeezing eyes and frowning, pouting, showing teeth, biting lips and swinging head and neck, shrugging shoulders, etc.. If the above symptoms disappear and develop gradually to the upper or lower limbs, a few of them are simple vocal twitches, such as throat clearing, coughing and roaring, snorting, and humming “ah” and “yah”, which start with a small voice and go unnoticed. The twitching can be restrained by the will for several minutes to several hours, and the symptoms disappear after sleep due to nervousness, emotional irritability or poor physical symptoms. The symptoms of this type are mild and the treatment is effective, and in some cases the symptoms resolve on their own. The child is sensitive, shy, incompatible, easily excited and agitated. It may be accompanied by enuresis night terrors or stuttering.
2, chronic motor or vocal tic disorder: the clinical manifestations are in line with the general characteristics of tic disorder can have simple motor tics and complex motor tics, or only vocal tics, and the symptoms involve a wide range in addition to the face, neck, shoulder muscle groups often involving the upper and lower extremities, trunk, symptoms occur frequently, and lasting, often more than 1 year. There are a few children who have chronic vocal twitches, and any one twitch does not exceed 3 groups of muscular motor twitches and vocal twitches. The symptoms of this type have a greater impact on the child’s learning and life, and most of them require consultation and treatment at this stage. However, the response to treatment is worse than the previous type and it is not easy to control completely.
3, Tourette’s syndrome: also known as the occurrence of joint tic disorder with a variety of movements or tic-obscene syndrome (delaTourette’s syndrome referred to as TS) symptoms often facial muscle twitching starts gradually spread to the neck, shoulders upper and lower limbs trunk can form a multi-part complex twitching some cases twitching and sudden impulsive movements exist simultaneously and The performance of peculiar postural movements such as kicking, squatting bending walking rotating unrestrained impulsive touching objects and others or patting, stabbing action; severe cases have self-injurious behavior, such as biting lips, pulling teeth poking eyes, poking nose and other actions. Again, the symptoms are similar to those of obsessive-compulsive impulse disorder. Vocal tics and motor tics exist together, can be simple or complex vocalizations, manifested as monophonic shouting like animal-like grunting meaningless words or as repetitive stereotyped obscenities and imitation of speech appearing obscenities have accounted for 10% of the affected children. Most of the symptoms are frequent and intense, which have a greater impact on the physical and mental health of the child. About half of the children have hyperactivity, short attention span, capricious impulsivity, learning difficulties and other forms of emotional disturbances.
Diagnosis
1. Patients have a certain degree of inhibition of symptoms, and when light patients intentionally cover up their tic symptoms, it makes it difficult for parents and doctors to detect them.
2, Some doctors believe that facial tics must have obscenities, but only 1/3 of patients actually develop obscenities several years after the onset of the disorder.
3. Many lay doctors are unfamiliar with the disease, so that they are confused by the wide variety of symptoms. The dry cough caused by laryngeal muscle twitching is misdiagnosed as chronic pharyngitis and bronchitis; blinking and frowning are misdiagnosed as conjunctivitis; moving nose is misdiagnosed as chronic rhinitis, etc. To choose the earliest and most professional treatment of facial tics in China, the hospital has entered the most effective and best diagnostic instruments internationally.
4, parents do not agree with this disorder. Rarely do people visit the hospital because they keep blinking their eyes and shrugging their shoulders, and mostly consider it a bad habit. When they go to the hospital to see another doctor and the doctor finds out about it, the parents don’t cooperate and say “it’s okay, it’s just a little problem”. When the doctor tells the parents, the parents are often distrustful and oppose the consultation, thus delaying the diagnosis.
What are the common treatment methods for children with Tourette’s syndrome?
I. Western medicine treatment
This treatment is mainly to control the development of the disease, through the use of nerve blocking agents, to block dopamine receptors, to achieve the purpose of controlling the convulsions. However, western drug treatment is likely to cause abnormal reactions in the extrapyramidal system, resulting in delayed movement of the child, increased muscle tone, resulting in the inability to speak and other side effects, which have adverse effects on the growth of the child. Therefore, experts do not recommend this treatment method.
Second, Chinese medicine treatment
The main reason is the dysfunction of the liver, spleen and kidneys, which causes abnormalities in the metabolism of wind, fire, phlegm and dampness, resulting in the accumulation of the disease in the body. Therefore, the key to treatment is to reasonably restore the normal function of the liver, spleen, kidneys and other organs, and regulate the wind, fire, phlegm and dampness in the body. Therefore, herbal medicine is the preferred common treatment for Tourette’s syndrome, which can cure the disease without bringing toxic side effects.
Acupuncture treatment
Acupuncture can also be used to treat pediatric tic disorder, but it should be used with caution for children who have a fear of acupuncture to avoid aggravating the disease instead of reducing it. If the child’s condition is serious, acupuncture treatment can only play a certain auxiliary treatment role, must be combined with the corresponding Chinese medicine, in order to completely control the condition and treat the disease.