For it is a false alarm, though one impossible to ignore. And one of the most fascinating of medical detective stories. These effective treatments for tic douloureux are a recent thing, payoffs of centuries of trial and error and decades of modern medical research. Benjamin Franklin's diaries from his years as ambassador to France record the primitive nerve destroying treatments attempted 200 years ago by the leading physicians of Paris. For the patients seen by the experts have usually been through years of ineffective treatment, and thus needless suffering.
Ignorance is expensive.
And in this case, excruciating. This litany of facts about tic douloureux, this bundle of contrasts, is only the tip of the iceberg. Neurological researchers talk of tic as one of the greatest of medical puzzles, with all of the elements of a proper detective thriller. There are dozens of tantalizing clues scattered about, some of them misleading, many exactly analogous to the classic clues of the murder mystery. The most important clue, appropriately enough for a good detective mystery, is the trigger.