The types of tics this new cohort of patients experience are often unlike tics seen previously, with some researchers calling them “bizarre in nature.” They can include explosive, tic-like motions, as well as complex motor or vocal tics previously noted by doctors. Some medical experts refer to such expressions of symptoms as “functional tic-like movements.” The term “functional” is used in medicine when there is no known cause for a symptom, and no available explanation.
Some believe these patients and their symptoms could represent a completely new tic-related condition.
Others offer a different explanation, pointing to social media and suggesting a psychogenic, or contagion effect. Views of videos on TikTok with the #tourettes hashtag doubled in just the month between January and February of 2021, and have been viewed more than 2.5 billion times. Some teenage girls reported watching these videos prior to the onset of their symptoms and others reported posting videos of, or about, their tics on TikTok or other social media platforms. Some of the teenagers reported that they had gained peer support for their condition and felt a sense of belonging from the exposure they received. This has led some to refer to the phenomenon as the “TikTok Tics.” Many researchers believe that these are not symptoms of provisional tic disorder, or an as-yet-unnamed new tic disorder, but rather a kind of fad, spread rapidly over social media, with other psychological factors at play.