- Worldwide it is estimated that 2% of the population suffers from Tourette Syndrome.
- To date there is no cure for this neurological disorder but there are treatments for its control.
- Every June 7th, World Tourette Syndrome Awareness Day is commemorated.
Celebrities are sometimes seen as perfect and unattainable people. In reality, they are ordinary humans like any other and in aspects such as health they are exposed just like the others. All this leads to knowing the list with some celebrities who have been diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome. It is a problem that is rarely talked about and that generates that many do not know for sure what it consists of.
First doctors to describe the disease
The first and most important thing is to know the definition of the disease and that leads to the first person who described it. It’s about French Georges Albert Edouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette. After studying medicine, he became a student of Jean-Martin Charcot, who is considered the founder of modern neurology.
In 1884 both described nine patients with tics and involuntary movements in their body. They also recognized that this disease is characterized by generating vocalizations with uncontrollable sounds, including coprolalia and echophenomena. In that first instance the problem was called Gilles de la Tourette’s disease.
Symptoms it causes
Now it is time to move forward to the present to delve into the disease thanks to the new research that has been carried out. Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disorder that first manifests in childhood or adolescence, before the age of 18. It is characterized by many motor and phonic tics that last for more than a year.
The first symptoms are usually involuntary movements (tics) of the face, arms, limbs, or trunk. They tend to be frequent, repetitive and fast.
The most common first symptom is a facial tic (blinking, twitching of the nose, grimacing). Other tics of the neck, trunk, and limbs may replace or be added.
These involuntary tics can also be complicated and involve the whole body, such as kicking and stamping.
There are also vocal tics and they usually occur along with movements. Vocalizations can include growls, throat clearing, screaming, and barking. They can also be expressed as coprolalia or copropraxia.
Affected patients throughout history
Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) two percent of the global population has Tourette Syndrome and within the list some celebrities stand out. In that sense, one of the first cases in history occurred before the disease was described.
According to records, the playwright and writer Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Molière, suffered from constant tics. Records indicate that he had these complaints all his life, although since he died in 1673 he was never diagnosed.
A quite similar case occurred with the famous German composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who suffered from tics. The emblem of classical music lived at the end of the 18th century, so Tourette’s Syndrome had not yet been described at that time. Although all suspicions make believe that he had this disease.
With respect to the present, one of the most emblematic cases of celebrities with Tourette Syndrome is the young singer Billie Eilish. In an interview with David Letterman for the Netflix series “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” she shared for the first time that she has this disease.
The young woman who is 20 years old today stated that since she was 11 years old she was diagnosed with this neurological disorder. While now, thanks to the influence that she has from her, she has become one of the main ambassadors to raise awareness about this disease. For now, in Saludiario we share a graph with other cases of famous with Tourette Syndrome.