Deep Brain Stimulation For Tourette's Syndrome

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Does anyone remember the infamous Tourettes Guy on YouTube? In 2005, a man named Danny was featured on a YouTube channel called “Tourettes Guy”. The videos posted on this channel consisted of his day-to-day life and were posted in order to give the audience a sense of comic relief.  Danny suffered from Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and was known for making people laugh at his uncontrollable swearing and vulgar language.

Tourette’s or Gilles de la Tourette syndrome is recognized as a neurological disorder that is detected typically in early childhood or in adolescence. An individual will experience rapid/repetitive involuntary movements or tics of their face, arms, limbs, or trunk. It is also normal for individuals with this disorder to experience vocal tics that occur with the movements, such as grunting, throat clearing, shouting, or even barking. Symptoms of TS can vary from person to person and can be found in people that are also suffering from ADHD/ADD and OCD.

In this article, researchers were interested in finding out how deep brain stimulation can improve symptoms in patients that suffer from severe Tourette’s. Typically patients suffering from this neurological disorder can alleviate their symptoms through the use of medications, however there are patients that suffer from more severe symptoms that do not respond well to medications and can lead to disabling or life-threatening effects. Researchers believe that deep brain stimulation could potentially alleviate the symptoms experienced by the patients.

The neurosurgical technique of deep brain stimulation is typically used to treat patients that suffer from Parkinson’s disease and involves small electric shocks being delivered to the thalamus or the globus pallidus that would in return cause parts of the brain to become inactive without having to surgically destroy parts of the brain. According to the article, deep brain stimulation was first used as an experimental treatment for severe Tourette’s in 1999 and showed that after one year of having this treatment, patients showed improvement with Tourette-related symptoms, functioning, and quality of life.  Dr. John Krystal mentioned that Tourette syndrome is “commonly associated with the basal ganglia, but the thalamus receives the output from the basal ganglia.” He emphasized that this study shows when the basal ganglia becomes dysfunctional, a solution would be to intervene and alter the activity of another area of the brain that is usually the target of the basal ganglia output, just as the thalamus.


I found it interesting that deep brain stimulation could have such an effect on individuals that suffer from this neurological disorder. Before reading this article, I was only aware of medication being a treatment used for treating Tourette’s and after doing further research I discovered that cognitive behavioral therapy has also been used to help treat patients with this disorder as it is known to also help reduce symptoms and improve brain functioning. While reading this article, I found myself thinking about Danny, the Tourettes Guy, and how this treatment could potentially help him with his disorder. With research continuing, I am curious to find out how deep brain stimulation can lead to finding a cure or a highly effective treatment for all patients suffering from this neurological disorder. I believe this research could actually be life changing to the 200,000 individuals every year that are diagnosed with Tourette’s and could possibly lead to finding a way to prevent the development of severe symptoms in adolescents.

Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160303094154.htm


Comments

  1. Amber WittmanApril 20, 2016 at 3:51 AM

    I not only know someone with tourettes syndrome, but I am also aware of the Tourette's Guy. This post is interesting because it serves the current solutions for this outwardly projected disorder. Did you know that the verbal type of the syndrome is actually less common in real life? It is interesting because whenever this disorder is comically or dramatically used in roles commonly the verbal type is depicted. In some severe cases the tics that are experienced can be quite violent. This often causes the person to be impulsive and they often fixate on their disorder when scared, frustrated, or under some sort of pressure. This disorder can be impairing, but behavioral theory, based on your explanation, seems like an excellent outlet for people with this syndrome.

    Information collected from: Personal experience and http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tourette/detail_tourette.htm

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