[Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome. Current status of tic disease]

Two French physicians, J.M.G. Itard (1774-1838), then G. Gilles de la Tourette (1857-1904), have individualized a syndrome which has now been universally recognized for almost a century. Modern clinical studies conducted in the United States on a large number of patients have confirmed and completed Gilles de la Tourette's excellent description based on 9 cases. Interpreted at first as psychological, these "caricatures of natural acts" (J.M. Charcot) have given rise to numerous experimental studies in search of a possible imbalance of neurotransmitters. The inconstant or contradictory results obtained so far do not provide a coherent explanation. With its bizarre and disconcerting symptoms, the Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome compromises the social life of the patients throughout childhood and adulthood. Physicians should be able to diagnose the syndrome in order to help these patients, whose mental capacities remain unimpaired.