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Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a hereditary disease, and there is no known cure. Named after 19th-century French neurologist Georges Gilles de la Tourette, it's a mental disorder characterized by uncontrolled physical and verbal tics. According to Yahoo! Health, these involuntary movements can include eye blinking, kicking, shrugging, arm thrusting, shouting, and jumping. Although limited to a minority of cases, the verbal elements of Tourette Syndrome are echolalia, or the obsessive repetition of words someone has just spoken, and coprolalia, the uncontrolled use of obscene or scatological language. Coprolalia isn't restricted to swear words -- it often
includes racial epithets and other socially unacceptable phrases. The more inappropriate the language, the higher the likelihood of it being spoken. Tourette Syndrome is found in roughly 2% of the general population, and affects four times as many boys as girls. It is passed on as a dominant gene and can produce different symptoms in different family members. According to this helpful FAQ from The Tourette Syndrome Association of Ontario, persons with TS have roughly a 50% chance of passing some form of the disorder down to their children. While there is no known cure, people with Tourette's have been known to experience remissions. And someone with Tourette's can expect to have a normal lifespan. Mozart was
posthumously diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome. For more resources on TS, try the Tourette Syndrome category in the Yahoo! Directory.
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