Tourette syndrome or Tourettes syndrome (abbreviated as TS or Tourettes) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. Common tics are blinking, coughing, throat clearing, sniffing, and facial movements. These are typically preceded by an unwanted urge or sensation in the affected muscles known as a premonitory urge, can sometimes be suppressed temporarily, and characteristically change in location, strength, and frequency. Tourettes is at the more severe end of a spectrum of tic disorders. The tics often go unnoticed by casual observers. Tourettes was once regarded as a rare and bizarre syndrome and has popularly been associated with coprolalia (the utterance of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks). It is no longer considered rare; about 1% of school-age children and adolescents are estimated to have Tourettes, and coprolalia occurs only in a minority. There are no specific tests for diagnosing Tourettes; it is not always correctly identified, because most cases are mild, and the severity of tics decreases for most children as they pass through adolescence. Therefore, many go undiagnosed or may never seek medical attention. Extreme Tourettes in adulthood, though sensationalized in the media, is rare, but for a small minority, severely debilitating tics can persist into adulthood. Tourettes does not affect intelligence or life expectancy. There is no cure for Tourettes and no single most effective medication. In most cases, medication for tics is not necessary, and behavioral therapies are the first-line treatment.
Schenck and Mahowald also discovered that none of the patients had any eating instability before their problems at night while sleeping. In their 1993 report, they summarized the major findings with the idea that women encompass at least two thirds of the patients and that the majority of these patients had become overweight. They also discovered that while the patients night-eating normally started during early adulthood, this wasnt always the case as it started as early as childhood to as late as middle adulthood. These patients not only had NSRED, but many of them had also had other nighttime behaviors such as sleep terrors for several years. This revolutionized the way people saw NSRED. With the technological age growing and more people becoming obese, Schenck and Mahowalds discovery of NSRED causing a large weight increase helped doctors more easily identify this disorder. As seen in Table 1 below, almost half of Schenck and Mahowalds patients were significantly obese. According to body mass indexs criteria, no patient was emaciated. Schenck and Mahowald said, "virtually all patients had accurate non-distorted appraisals of their body size, shape, and weight. Furthermore, unlike the patients in Stunkards series, none of our patients had problematic eating in the evening between dinner and bedtime; sleep onset insomnia was not present; and sleep latency was usually brief, apart from several patients with RLS." After realizing what was wrong with them, many of Schenck and Mahowalds patients with NSRED restricted their day eating and over exercised.