What Could Be Causing Your Muscle Twitches and Spasms?

10. Tourette Syndrome

Despite popular belief, Tourette syndrome is not a purely verbal disorder. Tourette’s with coprolalia, outbursts of obscene or inappropriate language, is actually one of the rarer forms. Instead, most individuals with Tourette’s experience involuntary phonic or motor tics. These take the form of motions or sounds the individual is physically compelled to perform. Though a person may be able to suppress a tic, the resulting mental and physical strain poses a danger. Motor tics may present as blinking, sniffing, grunting, grimacing, or various specific movements. Due to their sudden nature, tics are almost identical to muscle fasciculations, though their cause is very different. In cases of minor motor tics, some physicians misdiagnose Tourette’s.

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