ABSTRACT
The Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (TS) is a chronic, inherited neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by the presence of involuntary motor and phonic tics that wax and wane. Although once considered a rare disorder, the prevalence of TS may be as high as 3.5% of school-aged children. In addition to tics, individuals with TS often have a variety of concomitant psychopathologies including obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning difficulties, and sleep abnormalities. Although the presence of neurobehavioral problems is not required for the diagnosis of TS, their clinical impact on the patient may be more significant than the tics themselves. Tourette syndrome is an inherited disorder (specific gene and mode of inheritance remain unclear), but nongenetic environmental factors can influence tic frequency and severity. Pathophysiologically, tics arise within cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical pathways and likely represent a dysfunction of synaptic neurotransmission.
