Understanding Tic Disorders in Children

Tics or tic disorder is a neurological disorder that is common in children. Tics are small, involuntary, repetitive, short movements or sounds.

Symptoms of tics

The most common small movements include blinking, pouting, grimacing, neck twitching, shrugging, etc.; while speaking, symptoms such as clearing the throat, humming, and choking may appear from time to time.

During an attack, the patient will feel an irresistible urge to twitch or make a sound. The urge is not relieved until the small movement or sound is completed.

Generally speaking, most patients fall into the category of "making small movements", followed by those who make sounds. Occasionally, there will be multiple small movements and strange sounds at the same time. The most common severe form is Tourette's syndrome, also known as Tourette's syndrome. Tourette's syndrome is just an extreme case of tic disorder. The patient's body tics may be exaggerated (such as teeth grinding, spitting, finger twirling, or complex hand and foot movements, etc.), so that they are often reported by the media or appear in movie plots, such as knocking, yelling, and even "using foul language" for no reason. Although Tourette syndrome is real, it is also very rare.

Most patients have normal physiological functions

The pathological cause of tics is still not fully understood by the medical community. It is generally believed to be related to the overexcitation of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the basal ganglia of the brain. Except for a very small number of patients who also suffer from other neurological diseases, most children with tics have no other health problems and have normal physiological functions.

Most tics are mild symptoms. If they do not cause emotional distress or social barriers, they generally do not require treatment. Many tics come and go, and the symptoms will decrease or even disappear as the child grows older. Parents are overly involved and prohibitive.

Suppressing tic behavior will often increase the child's psychological pressure and worsen the situation.

If the condition has a negative impact on daily life and physical and mental health, psychological treatment and drug intervention must be considered. Common psychological treatments include "habit reversal therapy" and "exposure and response prevention".

Clinical treatment methods

If the patient has difficulty dealing with anxiety, the doctor or counselor will teach relaxation and stress management techniques. Drug treatment is mainly based on psychiatric drugs such as dopamine inhibitors. However, due to many side effects, they are generally only used for severe cases and those with poor psychological treatment effects.

As mentioned above, a small number of patients with tics will suffer from other neurological diseases at the same time, and there are also individual types of epilepsy that will produce movement disorders similar to tics. Therefore, if a child is found to have suspected tics, parents should take the child to a doctor for a confirmed diagnosis.