Write a 16 page essay on Mental Disorder: Tourette Syndrome.Download file to see previous pages... That is, stimulant medications commonly prescribed to hyperactive children (e.g., Ritalin, Cylert, De

Write a 16 page essay on Mental Disorder: Tourette Syndrome.

That is, stimulant medications commonly prescribed to hyperactive children (e.g., Ritalin, Cylert, Dexedrine, etc.) can sometimes precipitate TS in predisposed children, according to the Food and Drug Administration."(p.4) This condition is neither degenerative nor terminal (Meyers, 1998).

Tourette's syndrome symptoms fall along a continuum from barely noticeable to blatantly noticeable and debilitating. Frequency of tics may range from those who tic only when they are anxious or fatigued to those who might tic as much as 30 to 100 times per minute (Murray, 1997). For many years clinical interventions and research focused almost exclusively on people with the most severe cases of TS. This focus may have created a distorted perception of the TS population, i.e., TS was thought to be a very rare condition that a practicing physician might see only once throughout his or her practice of medicine (Zinner, 2000). However, It is now recognized that most cases of TS are in the mild to moderate category. Many people affected by TS may never seek medical intervention (Hendren, 2002).

There is a child in your class who is very perplexing. She is bright, friendly, anxious to please, generally well-behaved and polite. However, for no apparent reason, she disrupts the class with snorting noises. She also blinks her eyes constantly, even though the eye doctor says she doesn't need glasses. She also persists in jumping around in her seat. You have spoken to her and her parents about her behavior, but she has persisted. You wonder: Is she looking for attention because her parents have recently separated Is she unusually anxious about something Does she have some emotional problem that is not obvious Finally, someone suggests to you that the child may have Tourette Syndrome.

The symptoms of Tourette's syndrome (TS) have been reported since antiquity. The syndrome was first documented in the 1400s. however, the diagnosis at that time was possession by the devil. One of the earliest accounts, written by two Dominican monks in 1489, concerned a priest who suffered from multiple complex motor and vocal tics (Lohr and Wisniewski 1987, p. 175-179).

In all his behavior he remained a sober priest without eccentricity, except during the process of any exorcisms. and Tourette's Syndrome when these were finished, and the stole was taken from his neck, he showed no sign of madness or any immoderate action. But when he passed any church, and genuflected in honor of the Glorious Virgin, the devil made him thrust his tongue far out of his mouth. and when he was asked whether he could not restrain himself from doing this, he answered: "I cannot help myself at all, for so he uses all my limbs and organs, my neck, my tongue, and my lungs, whenever he pleases, causing me to speak or to cry out. and I hear the words as if they were spoken by myself, but I am altogether unable to restrain them. and when I try to engage in prayer he attacks me more violently, thrusting out my tongue." (Lohr and Wisniewski 1987, p. 191)&nbsp.