Treatment of Tourette syndrome
There is no cure for Tourette's and no medication which works universally for all individuals without significant adverse effects; knowledge and understanding are the best treatments available for tics. Management of the symptoms of Tourette's may include pharmacological, behavioral and psychological therapies. While pharmacological treatment is reserved for more severe symptoms, other types of treatments may help avoid or improve symptoms of depression or social isolation, and improve supportive family functioning. Educating the patient, family, and surrounding community (school, church, friends, etc.) is a key part of treatment.
Arthur K. Shapiro
Until the early 1970s, the preferred intervention for Tourette syndrome was psychoanalysis. Shapiro wanted to prove that Tourette's was an organic disorder, and that psychotherapy was not the treatment of choice. "The turning point in the diagnosis and treatment of Tourette Syndrome occurred in 1965", when Dr. Shapiro and his wife, Elaine Schlaffer Shapiro (Ph.D.), treated a patient with haloperidol (Haldol). The Shapiros reported the treatment in a 1968 article, published by the "British Journal of Psychiatry", after it was rejected by American journals. The paper "severely criticized" the psychoanalytic approach, which had endured throughout the previous century, to treating the condition.