Beneath the Stripes:
Tourette's Syndrome from the Tiger’s View
by Darin M. Bush
A Tic by any Other Name
I think it is time to tell you that Tourette’s syndrome (TS)
is named after a psychiatrist. This is pretty typical in medicine. For those of
you filling out your TS ‘Bingo’ cards, this is an example of an eponym, i.e.: a
name from a name. In this case, TS was named after Georges Gilles de la
Tourette. Doctor Tourette was a contemporary of Freud’s, who has his own
eponyms. Back in 1885, Tourette identified a group of adults with involuntary
outbursts and movements. Way, way, way before CAT scans, he described a single
syndrome as the culprit. He was correct, so it is named after him.
Since he worked with severely afflicted Touretters, his original
information is a bit skewed. However, I give credit where due, and did I
mention that they named it after him? It is not his fault he did not have
access to magnetic imaging (MRIs) or haloperidol (Haldol) or The Jerry Springer
Show (crap).
What really disturbs me is, over the years, how ignorant we
have become about TS. Back in the 1970s, no one ever mentioned TS to my
parents. In the 1980s, no one ever mentioned it to me. In the 1990s, I was the
one telling them about it. I have no details on ‘them’, but you probably know
what I mean. For example, I knew more about TS than my psychology professors.
Oh, well. At the least, one of them was genuinely curious about the new data.
Let me give you an example of what happens when medical
professionals do not have, for whatever reason, the latest data. My biological
father, my Dad, was at least a carrier of the TS gene, as was my mother. He
tics, he ticced. Big shock. When he was young, maybe in his teens, he was
diagnosed with St. Vitus’s dance. Yes, very good, it is an eponym. It is also
alarmingly inaccurate.
If you do a little bit of homework (say, 90 seconds on
Google.com), you discover St. Vitus’s dance is indeed a movement disorder. Okay
so far. The dance is essentially post- rheumatic fever syndrome. In English:
you get rheumatic fever, which is pretty awful, and your brain and nervous
system get light butter fried, which gives you the movements of the dance. Wow!
There you go! My Dad had rheumatic fever, here’s a lollipop and a bill. Except
for one tiny little problem: my Dad never had rheumatic fever. Doh! That is
like prescribing me a pill when I came to you with a collapsed esophagus; I
just can not swallow it.
So, 100 years after Tourette did his principal work, it was
hard to find a doctor who knew about him, let alone understood his syndrome.
However, 120 years after, thanks to technology, the various TS associations,
key doctors like Sacks & Comings, and the internet (of all things),
accurate information on TS is being disseminated more than ever. That is what I
am ticcing about!
Questions? Suggestions? Name it in an email to the Tourette Tiger
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