What is Tourette syndrome?

Tourette syndrome is a condition of the nervous system which leads people having “tics”. Tics is defined as a sudden movement or sound that happens continuously as people find it hard to control it or stop it. It’s like having hiccups. Tics are not harmful but it sometimes can be physically painful as controlling or suppressing all day long is tiring can lead to sudden release of tics at the end of the day. Moreover, there are two types of tics which are, motor tics, related to the actions and movements of the body such as blinking or jerking the arm or jumping. The other type is vocal tics, related to the sounds a person makes such as saying a word or phrase repeatedly or humming. On the other hand, a person can do both vocal and motor tics at the same time but it varies from on person to another. There are studies that confirmed that mostly genetics may be the reason for this syndrome as it occurs more in families. But until today it’s uncertain if there are other reasons or factors behind these tics. Tics start to appear between the age of 5 and 7 and they increase to others or it may go away completely. Also, this syndrome doesn’t affect the person’s intelligence and he/she behave as a normal human being. Until this day, there is no cure for this syndrome but there are medications that can reduce these tics and at the same time can lead to some negative side effects. At the end, studies stated that 1 out of 162 are children who are diagnosed with this syndrome all over the world.