To receive a diagnosis of TS a person must have both multiple motor and one or more vocal tics, not necessarily simultaneously, throughout a span of more than one year. Tics periodically change in the number, frequency, type and location and wax and wane in their severity.
Symptoms can sometimes disappear for weeks or months at a time.
While most persons with TS have some control over their symptoms from seconds to hours at a time, suppressing them may merely postpone more severe outbursts. Tics increase as a result of tension or stress and decrease with relaxation or concentration on an absorbing task. Tics are categorized as Motor or Vocal, Simple or Complex. Simple tics are movements or vocalizations which are completely meaningless, whereas complex tics are movements or vocalizations which make use of more than one muscle group or appear to be meaningful. L Belching Clicking Coughing Gasping Grunting Gurgling Gutteral sounds Hiccupping Hissing Honking Misc.