Treatment of Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome (also Tourette's syndrome or TS) is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of motor and phonic tics. Treatment of Tourette syndrome has the goal of managing symptoms to achieve optimum functioning, rather than eliminating symptoms; not all persons with Tourette's require treatment, and there is no cure or universally effective medication. Explanation and reassurance alone are often sufficient treatment; education is an important part of any treatment plan.
Societal and cultural aspects of Tourette syndrome
Other television and film productions depicting persons with TS, or using coprolalia as a plot device, include an episode of "Ally McBeal", in which Anne Heche portrays a woman with Tourette's whose leg tic causes her to run over and kill her boyfriend; "An Angel on my Tree", an episode of "Touched by an Angel" in which a father commits manslaughter in reaction to an event that involved his son who had Tourette's; an episode of "The Simpsons", in which Bart Simpson is mentioned to claimed to have Tourette's to excuse himself from a test; and an episode of "South Park", "Le Petit Tourette", in which Eric Cartman pretends to have Tourette's to get away with saying offensive things. The episode received a mixed reaction from the Tourette Syndrome Association, which commented that it provided useful information while at the same time perpetuating outright myths about coprolalia and Tourette syndrome.