Treatment of Tourette syndrome
Habit reversal training (HRT), massed negative practice, biofeedback, relaxation, hypnosis and other behavioral approaches are proposed as alternative treatments of tics, but few have been well assessed. Relaxation techniques, such as exercise, yoga or meditation, may be useful in relieving stress that may aggravate tics, but the majority of behavioral interventions (such as relaxation training and biofeedback, with the exception of habit reversal) have not been systematically evaluated and are not proven therapies for Tourette's.
History of Tourette syndrome
Dropping the criteria for impairment from the diagnosis resulted in higher estimates of the prevalence of TS (the question of "who has it?"). Older estimates "came from tertiary referral samples, the sickest of the sick"; greater prevalence casts the condition in an entirely new light, and calls for new biological models of the condition and new approaches to addressing a more common disorder. Discovering the causes of Tourette's may help resolve the questions of what it is and who has it. The autosomal dominant inheritance model has not been validated, and past research has been affected by the problem of referred samples, which may not reflect broader populations of persons with Tourette's. Probabilistic genetic models may yield better clues than the "one gene equals one disorder" approach. One of the most controversial presumed causes, the PANDAS hypothesis, has sparked disagreement.