Tourette Sdr. - Signs and symptoms

Symptoms present in Tourette syndrome can be classified into motion events, voice and behavior. Simple motor tics (blinking eyelids, nose wrinkling, lifting your shoulders, grimacing, head shaking) are quick gestures, no purpose and can be embarrassing or even painful for the patient. Complex motor tics are slower and easier to use for the actions described in intentional terms. These may include any type of motion produced by the body: jumps, spins, biting lips, touch persons or objects and performing obscene gestures (copropraxie).
Compulsions and rituals are organized and voluntary action: hand stretch 10 times before writing, lifting and placing seat repeatedly until it reaches the desired position, repeating the phrase three times, etc..
Vocal tics are as varied as the motor. Simple vocal tics consist of issuing meaningless sounds or noises: loud breath, cough, tics dregerea voice or imitating the sounds emitted by animals (barking, caterwaul, etc..) Complex vocal tics include words, phrases or sentences with linguistic meaning.
Often, symptoms occur at points of transition vocal language, and beginning a sentence, where there are blockages or difficulty in initiating speech or tranziitile of phrases. Patients can change the volume of voice, unclear words articulate a sentence, may accentuate a word or use a foreign accent.Symptom with the greatest social impact is coprolalia - the explosive use of obscene, aggressive or socially unacceptable.Although this is seen in about 30% of cases, coprolalia remains best known symptom of Tourette syndrome.
Some people tend to imitate the gestures and movements of others (ecopraxie), the words heard from others (ecolalie) or pronounced by themselves (palilalie).Symptoms of Tourette syndrome can be characterized as mild, moderate or severe in terms of frequency, complexity and degree of effect of patient's daily activities. For example, tics that occur every 20 to 30 minutes, such as eye blinking, head shaking may affect less than other tics (or pronunciation of barking obscenities) occurring less frequently.
There is great variability in the short and long term in terms of frequency and severity of symptoms. Some patients may suppress their symptoms as long as they are at school or at work, but when I get home, with violent tics occur at a marked and continuous throughout the day. Also, many patients they "lose" tics doctor's office. Severity of symptoms may vary over weeks and months, and can sometimes assign their exacerbation of events (for example, taking holidays in children).
Factors important for social adaptation of patients with Tourette syndrome are the degree of acceptance and family support and severity of disorders of attention, rather than the severity of motor and vocal tics.
The most common behavioral disorders are attention deficit, obsessions, compulsions, irritability, aggressiveness, and depression automutilante behaviors. Obsessive compulsive disorder is common in patients with Tourette syndrome.
Up to 50% of children with this syndrome suffer from the syndrome of hyperactivity and attention disorders that can profoundly affect school performance. Attention disorders and Tourette syndrome before symptoms may worsen as developing tics.