Tourette's syndrome in twins

✍ Scribed by H. Pakkenberg; B. Pakkenberg

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 72 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-3185
• DOI: 10.1002/mds.870060426

✦ Synopsis

Mov Disord 1990;5: 173-175) presented findings in monozygotic twins with Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (GTS) of great difference in severity.

We have followed a pair of monozygotic twins with GTS for 4 years where the difference in symptoms is as great as possible.

The twins are now 21 years old. They have no siblings. No one in the family has movement disorders of any type.

The birth weight of twin A was 2,200 g. His development was normal, he was walking at 15 months of age, and he was healthy until the age of 10 years. At that time, grunting and slight tics in the face started. During the next 5 or 6 years, the symptoms increased slowly, but when I saw him 4 years ago, when he was 17 years old, he had the most violent tics we have seen in our clinic (among 130 GTS patients). He was screaming and grunting every second to fourth second and could hardly sit in a chair. He is now working in a workshop as an instrument maker(!). He can manage to handle the most delicate tools, but he needs more time than others to finish a task.

The birth weight of twin B was 1,750 g. He had a normal development during childhood, and until the age of 20 years, 1 year ago, did not have the slightest symptom. He was not hyperactive as a child, and he is now a blacksmith. One year ago, he started grunting and stuttering for short periods, and during the last few months he has de-veloped slight tics in the face. At the last visit in the clinic