What is Tourette’s Syndrome? A Clinical Psychology Podcast Episode.

Tourette’s Syndrome is one of those conditions that has gained increased attention over the past few years. Thanks to the great work of campaigners and individuals wanting to raise awareness and ensure that people understand what the condition actually is, compared to the myths and misconceptions. I’ve been meaning to develop my own understanding of the condition for a few years, but I hadn’t got round to it like a lot of people. Yet when John Davidson, the Tourette’s campaigner said something awful because of his Tourette’s at the 2026 Oscars, this cemented my determination to learn about Tourette’s. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what is Tourette’s Syndrome, what are the symptoms, how it’s treated and more. If you enjoy learning about mental health conditions, neurological differences and psychological treatments, then this will be a great episode for you.

Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by CBT For Anxiety: A Clinical Psychology Introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Anxiety. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.

What is Tourette’s Syndrome?

Tourette’s Syndrome is a neurological disorder that’s characterised by uncontrollable as well as involuntary tics. These tics are rapid, sudden, recurrent and non-rhythmic vocalisations or motor movements. For example, head jerking, eye blinking, shoulder shrugging or nose twitching. Those are examples of some simple motor tics. Whereas you can have more complex motor tics that involve coordinated movements of multiple muscle groups and sometimes these can appear purposeful, but because they’re tics, they aren’t. For instance, bobbing the head whilst the person jerks their arm or facial grimacing combined with shoulder shrugging or twisting the torso.

Some examples of vocal tics can include throat clearing, sniffing, humming, barking or grunting. Or some more complex vocal tics can include repeating the words of other people, also known as echolalia, or saying socially inappropriate words (coprolalia).

In addition, the symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome typically manifest between the ages of 4 and 6 years old and they reach their peak at 10 and 12 years old. As well as some with Tourette’s Syndrome can have comorbidities of Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), where you have difficulty concentrating and staying on task, learning disabilities, obsessive-compulsive disorder amongst other conditions. These can include substance abuse, depression, anxiety, autism and childhood conduct disorder.

Furthermore, when it comes to getting a diagnosis of Tourette’s Syndrome, this is typically done by getting a description of the client’s tics and evaluating a family history. As well as certain blood tests and neuroimaging studies, like a computerised tomography (CT scan), electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans can be used to rule out other conditions that might be confused with Tourette’s Syndrome.

Moreover, to help set the scene for the importance of learning about this condition. According to the United States’ Centres for Disease Control, studies estimate that 1 out of every 162 children (0.6%) have Tourette’s Syndrome. Also 1.4 million people in the United States might have Tourette’s and about 1 in 50 children aged between 5-14 might have the condition because the CDC suggest that half of children with Tourette’s Syndrome might not be diagnosed.

Building upon this, a lot of famous people have Tourette’s Syndrome. For example, musician Billie Eilish has Tourette’s and she describes her tics as physically demanding but that they don’t limit her career. Athlete Jeremy Stenberg is nicknamed “Twitch” because of his Tourette’s and musician Jamie Grace Harper has Tourette’s, ADHD, anxiety and OCD.

Of course, I do want to note that, whilst there are media and online personalities, athletes, actors and comedians and musicians with Tourette’s Syndrome, it doesn’t mean that life with the condition is easy. There will be lots of people who are limited and in psychological distress because of their condition, as well as I am sure that these celebrities had to overcome a lot of personal challenges as part of their condition to get to the level of success where they are today.

What are the Symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome?

For someone to have Tourette’s Syndrome, they need to have the following symptoms, they need to have multiple motor as well as one or more vocal tics, the tics need to have emerged before the age of 18, the tics cannot be attributable to any other condition, and they need to have persisted for at least one year.

As I mentioned earlier, there are two categories of tics, simple and complex. Simple tics are brief, sudden movements that involve a limited number of muscle groups and whilst they might be repetitive, they typically happen in a single or isolated fashion. Whereas complex tics involve a distinct, coordinated pattern of successive movements and they involve several muscle groups.

And here’s what’s really interesting, only 10% to 15% of cases of Tourette’s Syndrome actually involve saying or shouting inappropriate words or phrases. Personally, I think this is fascinating because this finding highlights the importance of learning about the truth behind mental health conditions. Since whenever we think about Tourette’s, we always think it is people shouting out inappropriate words or phrases, when in reality that is very rare.

As a result, whilst this is a more information-focused podcast episode, I suppose that the first lesson for us, aspiring educational and clinical psychologists, is to always remind ourselves to be mindful of myths and misconceptions when it comes to our clinical work. When you encounter a mental health condition for the first time in the real world, it’s important to take a breath, remember that we might have fallen victim to believing myths and misconceptions about the condition and we need to approach our client with an open mind.

Some research suggests that coprolalia might be caused by damage to the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes anger as well as fear.

I would also add that it’s immensely useful when interacting with a client with a “new-to-you” mental health condition that the client will always be the best teacher for you. They live with the condition every single day, they experience the highs, the lows and how it impacts their daily life. Allow them to teach you, because I always say, you might be the expert in psychological theory and research, but the client will always be the expert in themselves and their life.

Due to my own personal distress about the topic of suicide and self-harm, all I will say is some complex tics can lead to self-injurious behaviours and I will not be given examples I’m afraid to protect myself and my own comfort.

In addition, a person with Tourette’s can sometimes suppress their tics for a short time, but this isn’t recommended. Due to the effort required to do this suppression, like akin to holding back a sneeze, and the tension within the person mounts and mounts and mounts until the tic escapes. This is important to note because tics can increase in stressful situations and typically improve when the person is relaxed, as well as tics significantly decrease during sleep. Therefore, if a person with Tourette’s suppresses their tics at school or work then it can be a healthy idea for them to go to a secluded spot afterwards and release the tics.

Personally, when I was researching and writing the above paragraph, my mind went towards masking behaviour in autism. This is when an autistic person masks or hides their autistic behavioural traits and symptoms so they can fit in and hide their autism from others. This can be immensely stressful, it can be draining and it isn’t good for the autistic person’s long-term mental health. I imagine it is similar for a person with Tourette’s with their tics. It can be helpful in the long run to create a safe, compassionate and non-judgemental environment where a person with Tourette’s can release their tics.

What Causes Tourette’s Syndrome?

Whilst the cause of Tourette’s Syndrome isn’t known, research does highlight a few potential causes. For example, research into the genetics of people with Tourette’s highlights that if people possess certain alleles and rare genetic variants then they are more likely to develop Tourette’s than other people. However, it’s important to note that just because a person has a genetic predisposition to a condition, it doesn’t mean that they will develop the condition. Instead the tics might manifest as a milder tic disorder or OCD instead of Tourette’s, or they might not develop any symptoms at all.

Another potential cause might be abnormalities in the brain according to some research. Since people with Tourette’s have differences in the frontal lobes, cortex, basal ganglia and the neural circuitry that connects these regions compared to people without the condition. As well as differences amongst the neurotransmitters, like serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, that are critical for communication among these nerve cells.

Finally, the biological sex of an individual can play an important role in the gene expression of Tourette’s. Since at-risk males are more likely to have tics whereas at-risk females are more likely to have OCD symptoms. As well as people with Tourette’s might have genetic risks for other neurobehavioural disorders, like substance abuse or depression.

Personally, I have to admit that for some reason, I don’t like the term “at-risk” when it comes to mental health conditions. Partly because it’s probably very medical terminology and I think it’s very negative. For example, I feel like you’re essentially saying “you’re at-risk of developing Tourette’s. I’m so sorry to give you this news,”. Or I just don’t think there’s a positive way to talk about a condition when you say someone is “at-risk”. And this is important because Tourette’s Syndrome isn’t curable, and I don’t think it needs to be. Instead Tourette’s is a condition that we need to support someone with so they can live a full, productive and happy life whatever that means to them.

A large part of enabling someone to live a happy life is not making them feel bad about their condition and decreasing the stigma so they can live authentically and without shame.

Just some thoughts.

Some other additional factors associated with the development of tics can include maternal smoking during pregnancy, older paternal age, lower birth weight and obstetrical complications.

How is Tourette’s Syndrome Treated?

As I mentioned a moment ago, there is no cure for Tourette’s and normally the condition can improve as the individual gets older, but Tourette’s is a lifelong and chronic condition. However, as a result of the negative impact the symptoms of Tourette’s can have on a person, treatment options are available in the form of therapy, medication and education.

How is Therapy Used to Treat Tourette’s Syndrome?

When it comes to psychological therapy, this can be helpful in the treatment of Tourette’s syndrome because whilst psychological difficulties don’t cause the condition, it can help a person to better cope with the condition and deal with the secondary emotional as well as social problems that happen. Therapy for Tourette’s involves not suppressing the client’s tics. Instead it focuses on specific behavioural treatments that include competing response training, like voluntary moving in response to a premonitory urge, and awareness training. These forms of therapy have been shown to be effective in small controlled trials. As well as relaxation techniques and biofeedback can be useful in alleviating the stress that can cause an increase in tic symptoms.

Personally, I would note that I have a minor issue with “small controlled trials” because of the experience I had researching, writing and understanding the field of the Gamification of Autism. Therefore, whilst it is great that we have some positive research findings that can help improve the lives of people with Tourette’s, it is critical that we ramp up these research studies to include more participants, conduct studies with greater statistical power and we ensure that these studies are as bulletproof as possible so we can definitively know how useful these techniques are.

Of course, this won’t be easy because I know that relaxation and biofeedback techniques are not as manualised, as let’s say cognitive behavioural therapy, so creating research studies and getting consistent and reliable results can be difficult. Yet psychology is a science and psychologists are researcher-practitioners so it’s important that we have reliable and good research to base our interventions on.

How Is Medication Used to Treat Tourette’s?

The majority of people with Tourette’s Syndrome don’t need medication because their tics don’t impact their daily functioning, but when tics do impair daily functioning then medication can be an option for people with Tourette’s. Even though, there is no one medication that is helpful to everyone with the condition as well as medication doesn’t completely eliminate their symptoms. Instead the medication that you’re given depends on the symptom that needs to be reduced.

For example, if a client with Tourette’s needs to reduce the intensity and frequency of their tic symptoms then they might be given a neuroleptic drug. These drugs are typically given in small doses that are increased slowly until the best possible balance between the decrease in symptoms and side effects are found. These side effects can include tremors, parkinsonian-like symptoms and these drugs lead to a decrease in involuntary movements.

Although, if a client wants to discontinue their neuroleptics then this is done slowly to avoid rebound increases in tics and withdrawal dyskinesias. Yet the side effects can include depression, anxiety, difficulties in thinking clearly, fatigue and weight gain.

Interestingly, there are some reports that medications that are given for other mental health conditions, like dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate which are normally given to people with ADHD, have been found to be effective without causing tics to become more severe.

To me, this highlights the important of working in a multi-disciplinary team because thankfully in the United Kingdom, psychologists do not have prescribing rights and I will always fight about that for reasons that I’ve discussed on an earlier podcast episode. Since psychologists will never be experts on medication for mental health conditions, and that isn’t a bad thing. This is why it’s important for medical staff and mental health practitioners to coordinate and effectively communicate so we can understand what is best for a client and if medication or therapy is even needed in the first place.

And I would say that my opinion on medication for mental health conditions has changed over the years and I have become slightly more lenient in some aspects, but I am still very much against the medicalisation of mental health and using drugs to treat mental health conditions over psychological therapy. Yet for neurological disorders, like Tourette’s, I accept the argument for medication if therapy will not be useful to the client.

Finally for this medication section, antihypertensive drugs can be used to treat tics as well, and some common side effects for clonidine include dry mouth, headaches, fatigue, insomnia and irritability.

How Can Education Treat Tourette’s?

As an aspiring educational psychologist, I always enjoy learning about how educational settings can be used productively and therapeutically to better support children with mental health conditions. Therefore, when it comes to students with Tourette’s, they typically function very well in classroom environments, even though some people with Tourette’s do have learning disabilities.

Nonetheless, when a person has Tourette’s and ADHD, OCD or when frequent tics greatly interfere with their social adjustment or academic performance, then students need to be placed in an educational setting that meets their individual needs. This can mean that these students need smaller or special educational needs classes, SEN schools or tutoring.

Ultimately, the most important thing when it comes to education and students with Tourette’s is that the student needs to be in a compassionate and understanding educational setting. In other words, the educational environment must understand that tics are not caused by bad behaviour, the student isn’t doing them on purpose and the student isn’t trying to be “naughty”. As well as the educational environment needs to encourage the student with Tourette’s to work to their full potential, and the setting needs to be flexible enough to accommodate their special educational needs. For example, they might need exams outside the regular classroom, a private study area, untimed testing or even oral exams when the child’s symptoms interfere with their own ability to write.

Personally, the exam accommodations are very interesting because I had never thought about it like that. Since there are a lot of exam rules that you would have to adapt for a student with Tourette’s. You couldn’t have them doing tics, especially vocal tics in an exam, because from an exam invigilator's perspective, you have to maintain the integrity of the exam and you have to note down everything that happens. For starters, you would have to write down every single tic that student has, the integrity of the exam might be harmed if the student’s tic leads to them shouting out an answer or some subject-specific knowledge, or disturbing other candidates.

You would have to have them alone in a room in a one-to-one situation. For that to happen, you need to fill out the paperwork and get permission from the exam boards and so on.

From an educational psychology viewpoint, and this taps into clinical psychology too because clinical psychologists could also coordinate and deliver the Continued Professional Development training to staff about how best to support a student with Tourette’s. An aspiring and qualified educational psychologist might be involved in reviewing school policy, procedures and ensuring that that legislation is met to ensure the student with Tourette’s has the support that they need at school.

Clinical Psychology Conclusion

Whilst I always knew this podcast episode was going to be a lot of fun, really interesting and I was going to learn content that I never knew before, at the beginning, I wasn’t sure this was going to be one of my favourites. Since my favourite episodes are the episodes where I can reflect a lot, write about my personal experiences and I can walk away from an episode thinking that I’ve really grown as an aspiring psychologist. I’ve enjoyed this podcast a lot more than I thought I would because it was great to see how aspiring and qualified psychologists can adapt their clinical and educational work to support people with Tourette’s.

As a result, as a little recap, Tourette’s Syndrome is a neurological disorder that’s characterised by uncontrollable as well as involuntary tics. These tics are rapid, sudden, recurrent and non-rhythmic vocalisations or motor movements. For example, head jerking, eye blinking, shoulder shrugging or nose twitching. Those are examples of some simple motor tics. Whereas you can have more complex motor tics that involve coordinated movements of multiple muscle groups and sometimes these can appear purposeful, but because they’re tics, they aren’t. For instance, bobbing the head whilst the person jerks their arm or facial grimacing combined with shoulder shrugging or twisting the torso.

I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode.

If you want to learn more, please check out:

FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET

CBT For Anxiety: A Clinical Psychology Introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Anxiety. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.

Patreon for exclusive access and rewards

Have a great day.

Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading

Besag, F. M., Vasey, M. J., Lao, K. S., Chowdhury, U., & Stern, J. S. (2021). Pharmacological treatment for Tourette syndrome in children and adults: What is the quality of the evidence? A systematic review. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 35(9), 1037-1061.

Billnitzer, A., & Jankovic, J. (2020). Current management of tics and Tourette syndrome: behavioral, pharmacologic, and surgical treatments. Neurotherapeutics, 17(4), 1681-1693.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/tourettes-disorder

Jafari, F., Abbasi, P., Rahmati, M., Hodhodi, T., & Kazeminia, M. (2022). Systematic review and meta-analysis of Tourette syndrome prevalence; 1986 to 2022. Pediatric neurology, 137, 6-16.

Johnson, K. A., Worbe, Y., Foote, K. D., Butson, C. R., Gunduz, A., & Okun, M. S. (2023). Tourette syndrome: clinical features, pathophysiology, and treatment. The Lancet Neurology, 22(2), 147-158.

Lund, J., Borch-Johnsen, L., Groth, C., Skov, L., & Debes, N. M. (2023). Impact of Tourette syndrome on education. Neuropediatrics, 54(02), 107-112.

Müller‐Vahl, K. R., Pisarenko, A., Fremer, C., Haas, M., Jakubovski, E., & Szejko, N. (2024). Functional tic‐like behaviors: a common comorbidity in patients with Tourette syndrome. Movement disorders clinical practice, 11(3), 227-237.

Seideman, M. F., & Seideman, T. A. (2020). A review of the current treatment of Tourette syndrome. The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 25(5), 401-412.

Set, K. K., & Warner, J. N. (2021). Tourette syndrome in children: An update. Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care, 51(7), 101032.

Woods, D. W., & Scahill, L. D. (2025). Managing Tourette syndrome: A behavioral intervention for children and adults therapist guide. Oxford University Press.

Yang, Z., Wu, H., Lee, P. H., Tsetsos, F., Davis, L. K., Yu, D., ... & Paschou, P. (2021). Investigating shared genetic basis across tourette syndrome and comorbid neurodevelopmental disorders along the impulsivity-compulsivity spectrum. Biological psychiatry, 90(5), 317-327.

I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page.

However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.

Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!

Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.