According to a report published October 19 in The Wall Street Journal, movement-disorder doctors were initially baffled by the surge. Tics are uncommon in girls, and boys are about three to four times more likely to have Tourette’s syndrome (TS) than girls, research has shown. TS is a nervous-system disorder that causes people to have tics such as sudden twitches, movements, or unwanted sounds. As doctors from medical institutions in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom began digging and comparing notes, they discovered a common link in many of the cases: girls who reported watching TikTok videos of influencers who have Tourette’s syndrome. Although no one database is tracking these cases nationally, institutions around the country are reporting a huge increase in teens with tics. Since March 2020, Texas Children’s Hospital has reported seeing approximately 60 cases, whereas doctors there saw one or two cases a year before the pandemic. At the Johns Hopkins University Tourette’s Center in Baltimore, 10 to 20 percent of pediatric patients have described acute-onset tic-like behaviors, up from 2 to 3 percent a year before the pandemic, per the Wall Street Journal report.
Social Media May Be Contributing to the Spread of Tics
Tics are a unique neurological condition because they are very suggestible, says Caroline Olvera, MD, a movement disorders fellow at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. In just the four months between March and June this year, Rush University saw 20 patients with these tics, up from 10 in the full year before. “We started to really notice it about a year into the pandemic and then through the summer months. We were seeing a lot of girls in their late teens for the very first time, which is abnormal — and they had developed the tics very abruptly — sometimes the week before we would see them in clinic, which is also an unusual situation,” says Dr. Olvera. Olvera and her colleagues published a paper in the journal Movement Disorders Clinical Practice in July 2021 after studying more than 3,000 TikTok videos produced by people who said they had Tourette’s syndrome. They found that 19 of the 28 most popular influencers with the condition reported developing new tics as a result of watching other creators’ videos. The tics displayed by the people on TikTok were different from those typically seen in TS, though there were some shared characteristics, says Olvera. Many of the TikTok videos featuring Tourette’s syndrome are lighthearted or amusing. People with tics illustrate how difficult it can be to do everyday tasks like baking or even saying the alphabet when you experience uncontrollable movements or verbal outbursts, according to the Journal report. Olvera believes that what’s happening among those Tourette’s TikTok influencers and in teen girls is an example of mass sociogenic illness, which is when behaviors, emotions, or conditions spread spontaneously through a group. An earlier episode of mass sociogenic illness was reported by NPR in 2012 in western New York when a group of teen girls developed unexplained and involuntary tics, twitches, and spasms. “What’s happening now with TikTok is similar, but the difference is the widespread use of social media,” says Olvera. According to a statement released by the video-sharing app, more than one billion people use TikTok every month. Because we’re able to watch these videos from anywhere, the “group” that can be involved in mass sociogenic illness isn’t confined to one geographic area — it can include the whole world, explains Olvera. Experts point out that one or two videos won’t likely make someone develop a tic, but because of the TikTok algorithm, watching a few Tourette’s videos may lead to a stream of similar videos showing up on the app.
What to Do if Your Teen Develops Tourette’s-Like Tics
If your teen suddenly develops a tic, don’t assume that means they are going to have to undergo treatment, says Olvera. “That will depend on different factors, including the level of disruption they are causing,” she says. Seek out a neurologist. Sudden onset of abnormal movement can also be caused by autoimmune conditions, so getting checked out by a doctor isn’t a bad idea, says Olvera. The right diagnosis will help with peace of mind and enable you to get the symptoms under control, she says. Take steps to manage and minimize stress and anxiety. Tics can get worse if an individual is under stress or experiencing anxiety, says Olvera. “A lot of the teenagers that we’re seeing have a history of anxiety and mood disorders,” she says. Take a break from social media. Teens who are experiencing tics should stop watching videos of other people displaying tics, according The Wall Street Journal. “Keep in mind, social media use isn’t just associated with these tics. It’s also associated with depression, anxiety, and worsening eating disorders,” says Olvera. That doesn’t mean your teen has to stay off social media forever. There can be positive aspects to online communities, she says. “It can be like a giant support group for people with different types of conditions.” Don’t overreact. If you call attention to the tics or talk about them too much, they may get worse, says Olvera.
