Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Music Gilles de la Tourette Syndrom Gilles de la Tourette Syndrom 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 aid in the diagnosis of a person to having the disorder but they are not the final determinate factor. Specialists use the symptoms listed above in there diagnosis but they use them on a laboratory level. Those are one of the two main items used by specialists to determine that a patient has TS or not. The other is based upon the family of the patient. The specialists look at the family past and see if any one else in the person’s family has a form of the disorder. Then they, the specialists, look and see how long ago the family member that had the disorder lived, and how closely the patient and the person in the patient’s family are related (Ward 13). There are no lab tests used in the diagnosis, no blood work, no cat scan, no tests (Ward 13). After being diagnosed with TS a person can undergo some treatment, though limited, to weaken some of the symptoms of the disorder. The treatment that patients undergo is strictly medication. There are six main medicines given to patients. The medications are designed to block dopamine receptors in the basal ganglia (Ward 13). Three of the medications have a multitude of side effects. Those medications are haloperidol, pimozide, and fluphenazine. The side effects created by these medications include things such as tardive dyskinesia, muscle rigidity, weight gain, sedation, impaired academic performance, and social anxiety. The three other medications are risperidome, lanzapine, and thiothixene. Those three medications have very few know side effects (Ward 13). Like most things in life the prognosis for people with the TS disorder has a good side and a not so good side, the bad side. The bad part is that there is no know complete cure for TS. The good side is that a person with Tourette Syndrome ha a life expectancy that is the same as a person without TS. Also the disorder doesn’t impair intelligence and the strength of the tics and vocal outbursts often decrease with age (Understanding). In conclusion a person interested in the disorder called Tourette Syndrome should research on the topics of the definition, causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatments, and the prognosis of the disorder. This is not a disorder that I would want to ever be faced with. But because of my age I have around a 99.9% chance of not developing any form of the disorder. That is because the disorder is recognized in the elementary years and is often diagnosed then as well (Ward 12). Bibliography: Harele , T. Children with Tourette Syndrome. 1992 Inlander, Charles. “Rare disorders and Orphan Drugs.” The Consumers Medical Desk Reference. 1995 : pp 109. “Tourette Syndrome.” Sick. 2000 : pp 765. “Understanding Tourette Syndrome.” Groyers Encyclopedia. 1992. Ward, Rebecca. “Tourette Syndrome.” Nursing Spectrum. 2001 : pp 12-14. Word Count: 745
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