History of Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome
Georges Gilles de la Tourette (1857–1904), namesake of Tourette syndrome
Classification and external resources
ICD-10	F95.2
ICD-9-CM	307.23
eMedicine	med/3107 neuro/664
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Tourette syndrome is an inherited neurological disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic.

The eponym was bestowed by Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–93) on behalf of his resident, Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (1859–1904), a French physician and neurologist, who published an account of nine patients with Tourette's in 1885. The possibility that movement disorders, including Tourette syndrome, might have an organic origin was raised when an encephalitis epidemic from 1918–1926 led to a subsequent epidemic of tic disorders. Research in 1972 advanced the argument that Tourette's is a neurological, rather than psychological, disorder; since the 1990s, a more neutral view of Tourette's has emerged, in which biological vulnerability and adverse environmental events are seen to interact.

Findings since 1999 have advanced TS science in the areas of genetics, neuroimaging, neurophysiology, and neuropathology. Questions remain regarding how best to classify Tourette syndrome, and how closely Tourette's is related to other movement disorders or psychiatric disorders. Good epidemiologic data is still lacking, and available treatments are not risk free and not always well tolerated.

The first presentation of Tourette syndrome is thought to be from the late 15th century in the book, Malleus Maleficarum ("Witch's hammer") by Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kraemer, describing a priest whose tics were "believed to be related to possession by the devil".

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