Traditional Chinese medicine treatment for pediatric tic disorder

  Tourette’s syndrome is a tic disorder characterized by involuntary, sudden, multiple twitches and the accompanying bursts of vocalizations and obscenities. It is more common in males, with a male-to-female ratio of 3:1, and more than 90% of cases start between the ages of 2 and 12. Tic-tac-toe syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder that begins in childhood, and its cause is not yet well understood. The main manifestations: tics and obscenities syndrome is characterized by involuntary, sudden, rapid and repetitive muscle tics, which are often accompanied by violent, involuntary vocalizations and obscenities. The twitching symptoms begin in the face and neck and gradually spread downward. The twitching may take various forms, such as blinking, squinting, pouting, shaking the head, shrugging, neck contraction, arm extension, arm flinging, chest lifting, bending, and trunk rotation. Vocal twitches may be characterized by guttural sounds and roars, which may gradually change to stereotyped curses and obscene statements. Some children with involuntary twitching gradually develop speech motor disorders, and some of them may imitate language, actions, and expressions. The site, frequency and intensity of the twitching may change. The twitching may increase when the child is stressed, anxious, fatigued, or sleep deprived, and decrease when the child is relaxed, and may disappear after sleep. The child’s intelligence is generally normal, but some children may have psychological problems such as inattention, learning difficulties, and emotional disturbances.  The current treatment for this disease is increasing year by year. Since the pathogenesis is not clear, symptomatic treatment is mostly used. Haloperidol and other central nervous system drugs are effective in treating TS, but they are prone to extrapyramidal and other side effects, and they are mostly damaging to the liver and kidneys of children. Therefore, children should be more cautious with western drugs.  According to the author’s literature and many years of clinical experience, I believe that the disease can be classified as slow-onset wind, convulsions, liver wind, and wind-phlegm in Chinese medicine, or as tremor, spasm, or depression. I believe that the etiology of the disease is mainly due to blood deficiency and wind, hyperactivity of liver yang and internal movement of liver wind. In recent years, I have applied Chinese medicine in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of evidence-based diagnosis and treatment, Chinese medicine treatment clinical achieved more satisfactory results. The following is a case of a child whom I followed for one year.  The child, Yang, male, 11 years old, had involuntary blinking of the eyes and corners of the mouth for more than 2 years, with more than 10 episodes per day. He was seen on February 18 of this year. Recently, he had a runny nose after catching a cold, and his diet was average. On examination: dull complexion, pale tongue, white fur, slow pulse, and average spirit. The prescription was as follows: Astragalus, Poria, Atractylodes, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Cicada, Peppermint, Thornbush, Fructus bupleurum, Angelica, Radix et Rhizoma, Radix et Rhizoma paeoniae, Dioscorea. After 8 doses of the medicine, the child’s parents called, saying that after two doses of the medicine, the child obviously felt the power of the corner of the eye to hold the blinking.  On June 25, the child was seen by telephone. After taking 20 doses of the last medicine, the symptoms were basically controlled, but there were occasional attacks, and recently there have been frequent attacks again.