Frequent blinking, throat clearing, neck stretching, shoulder shrugging, and other tic disorder manifestations in children vary

  Children with frequent blinking, throat clearing, neck stretching, shoulder shrugging and other manifestations are often encountered in pediatric clinics and are often treated with eye diseases such as impingement and conjunctivitis, or upper respiratory tract infections such as colds and chronic pharyngitis, or neurological diseases such as epilepsy and cerebral palsy, and no abnormalities are detected by various tests. Unbeknownst to them, these may be signs of tic disorder.  Tic disorder, also known as habitual spasms or transient tic disorder, is a common tic disorder in childhood, with an incidence of about 1-7%, mostly in preschool and early school-age children, more in boys than girls. The twitching may include blinking, squeezing the eyebrows, frowning, biting the lips, showing the teeth, opening the mouth, nodding the head, shaking the head, extending the neck, shrugging the shoulders, etc. In a few cases, simple vocal twitches, such as simple repeated coughing, humming and throat clearing, may occur. Sometimes the child is aware of them but cannot control them, and they are aggravated by emotional stress or fatigue. It usually lasts from a few weeks to a few months, but rarely lasts more than a year. If the disease lasts more than a year, it is called chronic tic disorder, and in some cases, multiple muscle twitches and vocalizations occur simultaneously, which is called tic-obstruction syndrome.  The cause of tic disorder may be related to the following factors: 1, genetic factors Some data show that the family members of children with tic disorder suffer from tic disorder is more common than the general population.  2, somatic factors local diseases of the body such as conjunctivitis, impingement, rhinitis or upper respiratory tract infection, etc. caused by the eye muscle, facial muscle part of the voluntary twitching, when the local disease disappeared, twitching symptoms still exist.  3, psychosocial factors such as mental tension, family discord, death of a relative, excessive study load and education style, poor parent-child relationship, etc., make twitching a manifestation of psychological emergency.  4. Organic factors Some children have a history of perinatal injuries, such as birth injury, asphyxia, premature birth, intrauterine infection, etc. About 5-6% of the children have abnormal EEG and about 25% have abnormal cranial CT with some neurological “soft signs”.  Some drugs such as central stimulants and antipsychotics can produce tic reactions when applied inappropriately or in large doses over a long period of time.  Most tics decrease with age and generally do not affect daily life without treatment. Individual children can choose psychotherapy, including supportive psychotherapy, family therapy, behavioral therapy, or take some psychotropic drugs under the guidance of a doctor.