Biomedical treatment of Tourette’s Syndrome takes a functional approach to treatment. Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder characterized by tics: involuntary, rapid, sudden movements or vocalizations that occur repeatedly in the same way. The cause has not been established and as yet there is no cure.
The most common first symptom is a facial tic, such as rapidly blinking eyes or twitches of the mouth. However, involuntary sounds, such as throat clearing and sniffing, or tics of the limbs may be the initial signs. For some, the disorder begins abruptly with multiple symptoms of movements and sounds.
There are two categories of TS tics. Simple tics include motor and vocal. Examples of simple motor tics include eye blinking and shoulder shrugging. An example of a simple vocal tic is throat clearing. The other category of tics is complex motor and complex vocal. Complex motor tics include touching people or smelling things. Complex vocal tics include reptition of sounds or phrases and vocalizing socially unacceptable words.
Benefits of biomedical treatment include reduction of simple and complex motor and vocal tics as well as improved remission rates for TS.