What is Pediatric Tourette’s Syndrome?

  Pediatric hyperactivity disorder is a chronic neuropsychiatric disorder that is more common in childhood, mostly starting at the age of 4 to 10 years old, more common in boys, with a male to female ratio of 5:1 to 3:1. The prevalence of the disease in adults is about 1/10 of that in children, and in recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of cases. The disease is often ignored by parents when it starts, mistakenly thinking that it is a problem with the child’s habits, and is scolded, or thought to be an eye or throat disease and see the ophthalmology or quintuplegia. There are also people who believe that tic disorder will naturally heal when they grow up, so they do not pay enough attention to their sick children, which can easily delay the best opportunity for treatment.  Although tic disorder is not a serious disease and there is no obvious organ damage, it may cause obstacles to the child’s learning, life and social interaction and may bring a great psychological burden to the family because it cannot be controlled soon after the onset. Therefore, we must pay enough attention to polydipsia tics.  Pediatric tic disorder is an involuntary, recurrent movement or vocalization with no apparent purpose. The manifestations are diverse and are divided into two main categories: motor tics and vocal tics. In some children, the form of tics may change, such as blinking and shrugging, but after a while it changes to nodding, shrugging, and involuntary vocalizations. Clinical observations show that most children with tics are sensitive, shy, out of sync, easily excited and agitated.  The main manifestations of tic disorder are: brief, rapid, sudden, varying degrees, and involuntary movements. They begin with frequent blinking, eyebrow squeezing, nose sucking, mouth pouting, mouth opening, tongue stretching, head nodding, etc. As the disease progresses, the tics gradually diversify, alternating with shrugging, neck twisting, head shaking, leg kicking, hand shaking or limb twitching. The symptoms are often more pronounced during emotional stress or anxiety, and disappear after sleep.  Vocal twitching often has a variety of features: explosive, repeated vocalizations, clear noise and grunts, unclear individual syllables, inappropriate stress or constant obscenities. The personality is more impatient and capricious and irritable, often accompanied by inattention in class or a decline in grades, and in severe cases the movements and pronunciation affect learning and classroom order, and the symptoms of tic disorder are fluctuating, progressive, and chronic process .  In addition to the complex symptoms of ADHD, there are many co-occurring disorders. Whenever coexisting disorders appear, especially the earlier they appear, the greater the likelihood that the condition will become complex and difficult to treat. It is important to detect and identify coexisting disorders in a timely manner because they must be treated primarily to improve.