Comments for TS+, The Tourette Syndrome "Plus" Blog

Comment on Bizarre outbreak of Tourette syndrome-like symptoms baffles school district by Amy

Amy — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:47:41 +0000

I am glad to hear Erin Brockovich is investigating. I don’y buy the mass hysteria explanation and neither do the parents. Some people suspect a bad vaccine batch. Hope she gets to the bottom of it.

Comment on ACLU sues Rhode Island truancy judges and courts by Kurt

Kurt — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:58:22 +0000

I have a cousin who is being brought before a truancy court, her son is a wonderful boy, smart, liked, and excels in most classes. He missed 35 days so far this year, 2 week of January. The Principal never contacted the mother, but rather went ahead and filed a complain. Every day truant was documented by a doctors visit provided to the school. The boy has tourettes, has a difficult time being picked on, just to add insult to injury.

Comment on Zero Tolerance Policies in Schools: Abject Failure by Leslie E. Packer, PhD

Leslie E. Packer, PhD — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:43:41 +0000

Thank you so much for providing that update, Dr. Thornburg. I’m particularly intrigued by your last statements above and would like to know more about that. Please let us know when the study is published, or e-mail me a copy (admin@tourettesyndrome.net).

Comment on Zero Tolerance Policies in Schools: Abject Failure by Monty J. Thornburg, Ph.D.

Monty J. Thornburg, Ph.D. — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:36:31 +0000

Since completion of my Dissertation: see “In the Eyes of the Beholder” above, I have worked as teaching administrator in the San Joaquin Valley region of CA throughout the past decade. My original quatitative study included Zero Tolerance as one of the constructs and it was found that students had a much lower opinion than adults: I recently completed follow-up research submitted for publication on “Searching for Social Justice in the San Joaquin Valley Region” of CA. My scaffolded qualitative study began with CA Dept. of Educ. consultant/leaders in Sacramento then moved to Administrators and Teachers between Fresno County and San Joaquin County. In this newest study (2011) where much of the dialog was about Zero Tolerance Policy, I found numerous examples of “in-justice” and a “School to Jail Pipeline” in a poor, rural, and ethnically diverse part of CA. Virtually all interviewees had a negative view of Zero Tolerance Policy in practice. Most importantly, I think, they revealed how the prison incarceration rate in the San Joaquin which is between 130% to 150% higher than the rest of CA negatively impacts student outcomes. Issues of immigration, race, poverty, drugs, gangs, aryan and anti-semetic hate groups and forced homelessness and foster care situtations, all play an important role in creating the complex situations and conditions that public alternative schools must deal with. It was also found that there is a link in the way discipline is tracked using computer driven systems, that rely on an “assertive discipline” model that tends to intensify student outcomes in negative ways. The tracking, where even trivial incidents are recorded, creates a record that too often leads students into “expensive” alternative eduation settings and sometimes toward incarceration.
Monty J. Thornburg, Ph.D.

Comment on UK study finds low rate of Bipolar Disorder in ADHD youth by Ray Tyler

Ray Tyler — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:16:40 +0000

I was diagnosed with manic depressive (bipolar) disorder way back in 1982. Since then I have undertaking considerable research into the disorder. This research has been instrumental in teaching me to manage my disorder.
I certainly agree that bipolar literature presents a wide variety of results when it is checked against ADHD for comorbidity.

Comment on Long-term outcomes of OCD in patients with at least one other anxiety disorder by Nataly Washington

Nataly Washington — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:18:58 +0000

As an aside to the point made about drug and alcohol abuse. There is also the problem of habituation to prescribed medication for people fighting anxiety. The benzodiazepines spring particularly to mind. There is a sick irony that the medical profession are far too often compounding peoples problems. I speak from 20 years work as a nurse and therapist working with, amongst other areas, people with anxiety disorders and drug/alcohol problems.

Nataly Washington

Antianxiety-drugs.com

Comment on Allergies are associated with increased rates of Tourette’s Syndrome – Study by Janice

Janice — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:00:34 +0000

My son not only has seasonal allergies but many food intolerance make his TS symptoms worse. It is all observation and there is a clear link. I think most parents of a child with TS do not need 80 more studies and 10 more years to tell us there is a link. We know. Have your kids tested for food allergies. The test itself is controversal. The only real way to know if they have food alleriges is to take them off the food for 2 to 3 weeks and then introduce the foods back in. The blood test will give you a guide as to where to start that process. It worked for my son. He no longer eats gluten or corn and his symptoms of TS are much better.

Comment on Video-game studies have serious flaws by andrea frazer

andrea frazer — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:27:22 +0000

Hi – My son has mild TS. After MUCH deliberation, I’m taking him off of his beloved Nintendo DS by Thanksgiving. His tics go up up up (which, if I had to deal with, I would… they don’t bother him at all) BUT…but… his attention span has been atrocious. These fast paced games seriously over load his frontal lobes and are like poison. I’d love more articles that substantiate this. Do you have a resource? Andrea PS: Thank you for what you do for the TS community.

Comment on An important new resource on OCD in school by Leslie E. Packer, PhD

Leslie E. Packer, PhD — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:02:32 +0000

I’m delighted to hear how well she’s doing. Just so readers don’t confused, though: are you saying that she had qEEG for OCD and that qEEG successfully treated her OCD or are you recommending it for other, non-OCD, reasons?

Comment on An important new resource on OCD in school by wendy sudberg

wendy sudberg — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:54:44 +0000

Hello Dr. Packer

You were a great help with navigating the challenges of OCD and the IEP for my child. My child did have qeeg biofeedback and that changed her life. There is a book Symphony of the Brain and if anyone wanted to explore this option it worked for us. My daughter is a Junior at Lafayette college on no medication.

Comment on How many teens have Internet addiction? by healer

healer — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:39:14 +0000

hey, love your post!

Comment on Written Expression Problems in Students with ADHD by Tracie

Tracie — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:32:53 +0000

My son has been diagnosed with the Disorder of Written Expression, yet the school did not see a NEED to test his Executive Functioning skills because of his other abilities. We did have him assessed at Fraser and found that he does have difficiencies and we can work with it in clinic, but the school does not see this as a problem. My son is on an IEP and he does get help with his writting and English. So, just because you contact the school to request an assessment, it does not mean that they will comply and do it.

Comment on Allergies are associated with increased rates of Tourette’s Syndrome – Study by Kris Drake

Kris Drake — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:16:57 +0000

My husband has TS, and he also used to experience cluster headaches each fall, which we think may have been related to seasonal allergies.

My youngest (age 7) has terrible eczema and seasonal allergies – she began having tics last year in first grade: sniffing, throat clearing, and finger licking. I would not be at all surprised if there’s a link. We treat her with an OTC antihistamine, but a recent article on this site suggested NOT blocking histamine….what to do?

Comment on Zero Tolerance Policies: Are the Schools Becoming Police States? by Kris Drake

Kris Drake — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:04:18 +0000

I’ve experienced this first-hand. My son was pulled into a conference room, surrounded by adults, and grilled (without our permission or attendance) over a drawing of a gun (he was drawing scenes from “Jaws” – the gun was pointed at a shark, not a human). We had to go there, take him directly to a psychiatric facility – which triaged through an ER – and get permission in writing for him to return to school on Monday. We spent 11 hours in the ER and all the physicians told us the school overreacted. Worse, our son suffers from anxiety disorder – the whole experience was harmful and ridiculous. He was in 8th grade at the time.
Later, they called us the week before school ended to complain that he had written an essay about a girl (they admitted it was well written – the assignment was to write about someone’s good qualities). The essay was not distributed, posted, or shown to the girl. I told them this was typical and normal adolescent behavior, not harrassment, and that if nobody wrote about unrequited love, we’d be missing out on a lot of great poetry and literature! There were other issues – he gave a girl a bracelet he’d bought for her while on vacation (through an intermediary – typical middle school behavior). He was called into Guidance and raked over the coals because it made the girl “uncomfortable.”

The suspended my straight-A daughter for joining in with over a dozen other girls in taking candy from a jar on a teacher’s desk after a performance at the school one evening. Hmm, if the candy wasn’t for everyone, why have it on display? Ridiculous.

I could go on, but that’s enough to demonstrate the zero tolerance needs to be applied considering the circumstances of the situation and the students involved.

Comment on Thrown out of the movies because of Tourette’s Syndrome by Makayla

Makayla — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:40:49 +0000

I have Tourette’s. While stories like this are upsetting, there have been several times when I’ve removed myself from class because my tics where too disruptive. Nobody said anything though. It was much better that it was my decision to leave.