Hi there. What you are having is a tic which is a sudden, repetitive, nonrythmic, motor movement or vocalization involving discrete muscle groups. These must be distinguished from other movement disorders like chorea, dystonia and myclonus. Simple motor tics are typically sudden, brief, meaningless movements that usually involve only one group of muscles like eye blinking, head jerking or shoulder shrugging. also seen are neck stretching, mouth movements, facial grimacing etc. tics increase as a result of stress, fatigue, boredom,or high energy emotions, anxiety etc whereas concentrating on an absorbing activity often leads to a decrease in tics. Tourette syndrome is the more severe expression of a spectrum of tic disorders, which are thought to be due to the same genetic vulnerability. Other conditions that may manifest tics are developmental disorders, autism spectrum disorders, Duchene dystrophy. other possibilities are chromosomal disorders like down syndrome, kleinfelter’s syndrome, etc. acquired causes of tics include drug induced tics, head trauma, stroke etc. Tests to rule out other conditions like EEG, hypothyroidism, MRI, urine drug screen for cocaine and stimulants. If a positive family history of liver disease, serum copper and ceruloplasmin levels can rule out Wilson’s disease. Consult a neurologist for a detailed evaluation and management. Take care
In this special Missouri Medicine report, doctors examine advances in diagnosis and treatment of this devastating and costly neurodegenerative disease.