How would you like to have a disorder named after you? In 1885 Dr. George Gilles de la Tourette, a pioneering French neurologist, described an 86 year old French nobleman’s wife with the condition. After this the disorder became known as George Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome then later it became Tourette Syndrome. That was over a century ago (Tourette 765). That was over a century ago. Now it is estimated that one in every two hundred people show a partial expression of the disorder (Ward 13). Also, approximately one hundred thousand Americans have full blown Tourette Syndrome (Ward 13). A short name for Tourette Syndrome is TS (Inlander 109). A person interested in Tourette Syndrome might examine the definition, causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatments, and the prognosis of the disorder.Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disorder (Tourette 765). The cause of TS has been traced to genetic ties. It is handed down from one generation to the next generation and so on and so on. It also has not been known to skip generations. It is passed on by a single autosomal gene in a dominant pattern (Ward 13). Scientists have been able to trace the disorder to chromosome 4 or 8 as a locus for the TS gene (Ward 13). That means that a child with a parent that has the disorder of TS has a 50/50 chance of receiving the chromosome, gene, with the disorder contained upon it.Tourette Syndrome has a multitude of symptoms. One category of the symptoms is the twitches, or “tics.” “Tics” are such things as rapid eye blinking, shoulder shrugging, rapid head jerking, and quick facial movement (Understanding). Another symptom category of TS is the vocal outbursts. The vocal outbursts include things such as grunting, barking, or the usage of foul or inappropriate language at very high volume levels (Harele). All of the symptoms of TS are uncontrollable actions by the person with the disorder (Harele).The symptoms ai...
