Q: What is Tourette Syndrome?

A: Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a neurological or "neurochemical" disorder characterized by tics--involuntary, rapid, sudden movements or vocalizations. The symptoms include:

1. Both multiple motor and one or more vocal tics present at some time during the illness although not necessarily simultaneously.

2. The occurrence of tics many times a day nearly every day or intermittently throughout a span of more than one year.

3. The periodic change in the number, frequency, type and location of the tics, and in the waxing and waning of their severity. Symptoms can even disappear for weeks or months at a time.

4. Onset before the age of 18.

The term "involuntary" used to describe TS tics is often misunderstood because most people with TS do have some control over their symptoms, the control, which can be exerted from seconds to hours at a time, merely postpones more severe outbursts of symptoms later. Tics are experienced as irresistible as the urge to sneeze, and must eventually be expressed. People with TS often seek a secluded spot to release their symptoms after suppressing them in school or at work. Typically, tics increase as a result of stress or tension (but are not caused by stress) and decrease with relaxation or concentration on an absorbing task.