Tics, one in five children suffers

MILAN - involuntary movements are small, insignificant gestures that are repeated dozens of times: squinting, bend your head to one side, clear his throat, touch your nose. Twitching, harmless but very less rare than you think: a large Spanish study published in the journal Pediatric Neurology (in fact, has revealed that 17 per cent of school-age children suffer from one or more small tics.


SURVEY - The researchers have analyzed about 1200 children of primary and secondary schools of a Spanish province, going to evaluate the presence of motor and verbal tics more or less obvious. "Until now it was always thought that the tics are altogether rare an occurrence, but because the research has been conducted on patients who come to the observation of the doctor and then have tics" heavier "and obvious. Looking at the whole school population, we noticed that the tics rather light, almost imperceptible, are quite common: he suffers almost one in five children, "says the author of the study, the hospital's Cube neurologaEsther Spanish Burgos. According to data collected, 17 per cent of children has some form of involuntary movement, however slight, this figure rises to just over 20 per cent in special schools for children with learning problems, and is always higher among males than girls (the boys in the general population with tics are 19 percent, females about 12).

ICT - The children with motor tics are very evident around 6 percent, those with Tourette's syndrome in which you add vocal tics (sudden screams, cries of animals, obscene words) arrive at 5 percent, the neurologist to emphasize, however, take that in most cases identified by her tics are very light and most disappear or diminish greatly with age. "Tics are the neurological basis of motor disorder most common among children and teenagers, but do not have to worry about - says the Cube -. We do not know yet what causes it, but it certainly involved the cerebral ganglia and the motor cortex of the base: it is assumed that there is a lack of suppression of involuntary movements and through functional magnetic resonance imaging was possible to understand that some of those brain areas tics are suffering from overactive or, conversely, not "light up" when they should be to eliminate the involuntary movements. " Tics, as well as Tourette's syndrome, have a strong hereditary component, the boundary between normality and pathology is not given the quality of tics, but also on their frequency. "Between eight and nine years at least three out of ten children have a nervous habit: this is absolutely normal, though in a few months the show runs out alone - says the neurologist -. Only if the tics increase and become more complicated, speak to a doctor for proper diagnosis and, if necessary. A nervous tic "normal" in children as in adults, does not require medication or special treatment: we must consider it only as a possible "spy" of anxiety disorders or obsessive-compulsive disorder, which are actually more frequent in these subjects. But we must not make a fuss. "

Living with narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder of neurological origin. Its main feature is the excessive daytime sleepiness. The patient often feels drowsy, either continuously or at different times of day.

Sometimes sleepiness is so sudden and so intense that it calls "sleep attack". Some people may have several attacks of sleep during the day. Sleep attacks can last from a few minutes to over an hour.

Other symptoms of narcolepsy, which may or may not occur in all patients, are cataplexy, which is the sudden and reversible decrease or total loss of muscle tone, usually triggered by intense emotions such as laughter, anger or fear; Paralysis Sleep, a temporary inability to talk or move when the patient begins sleep, during sleep or when awake and may last from seconds to minutes, and hypnagogic hallucinations are experiences very difficult to distinguish from reality and often frightening, usually occur while falling asleep or waking up.

Narcolepsy is more common than you think. Its incidence in Western countries is between 0.2 and 2.6 by 1000. It is as widespread as Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis is more common than cystic fibrosis, although less well known.

Lack of information

The diagnosis is relatively easy when all the symptoms of narcolepsy appear, but if you only have sleep attacks and cataplexy is mild or not, the diagnosis is more difficult and can sometimes be confused with other disorders.

Given that the diagnosis of narcolepsy is often delayed for many years, it is very important that primary care physician has a current knowledge about sleep disorders and likewise for the patient to provide adequate information about their symptoms.

Manuel Martinez has over 20 years diagnosed with narcolepsy. He has learned to live with it and although it has had to leave their job because it took a long time to do things, consider leading a normal life, despite their conditions.