title: Coping with Tourette Syndrome and Tic Disorders
author: Barbara Moe
description: This informative book discusses Tourette syndrome, tic disorders, and related problems affecting activities, moods, learning, behavior, and sleep. Moe combines solid information, brief case studies, and sound advice as she explores the many facets of these related disorders, the ways in which they affect young people's lives, resources available to those looking for medical or legal help, and strategies for coping in daily life. Her straightforward approach and matter-of-fact, supportive tone make the information readily accessible to young readers, even those who come to the topic with some degree of discomfort. Although primarily speaking to young people with Tourette syndrome and tic disorders, the book also addresses their families and friends. A helpful guide to a subject rarely discussed in books for young people, though it certainly touches many lives. <i>Carolyn Phelan</i><br /><i>Copyright  American Library Association. All rights reserved</i>
zlib_text: Defining the Problem
  Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a chronic neurological
  condition characterized by multiple motor and vocal
  tics that persist for more than a year. The American
  Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical
  Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV)
  also states that significant distress or impairment in
  functioning is necessary for a diagnosis of TS, but
  these additional criteria are controversial.
  The tics—sudden, rapid, recurrent, nonrhythymic,
  stereotyped motor movements or vocalizations—are
  described as simple or complex. Simple tics, usually
  the first symptoms of TS, include blinking, shrugging,
  head jerking, sniffing, grunting, and barking. Complex tics, which involve coordinated patterns of
  movement or sound, may include hopping, jumping, twisting, or verbalizing words or phrases. The
  most dramatic complex tics are those that involve self-harm, such as punching oneself, and copro-
  lalia, which is the uttering of obscenities. Although this is a frequen