In the corona lockdown, stress also increased among young people.
Doctors registered an influx of girls with Tourette-like symptoms.
New York - A "tic" in the medical sense is anything but fun for those affected.
You twitch or make noises unintentionally.
They can't control it any more than they can control hiccups.
This "Tourette syndrome" usually begins in childhood and affects boys much more often.
However, such tics have now been observed more and more in female adolescents, and doctors have expressed a suspicion.
As the
Wall Street Journal
currently reports in detail, doctors in the USA, Canada, Australia and Great Britain have reported an unusually high number of female patients who have complained of tics since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to the report, the medics found one thing they had in common: they used TikTok.
Short videos of a maximum of three minutes are shared on the social app.
Tics puzzles and certain TikTok videos: social media as an influence?
The connection, if one can speak of one when observing, is complex.
According to the WSJ, most patients were diagnosed with anxiety or depression at the same time, which the corona crisis either triggered or worsened.
British researchers have devoted themselves to the phenomenon since January 2021 and counted that the hashtag #Tourette had risen from around 1.25 to a good 5 billion uses during this time.
Videos with the hashtag #Tourette are a phenomenon in their own right.
Users show their tics in these clips - it is difficult to determine whether they are really affected by Tourette.
Doctors also consider it possible that the users suffered from psychological stress and therefore showed tics.
Tourette clips on TikTok & Co .: "We recommend that you no longer watch such videos"
The psychiatrist Kirsten Müller-Vahl already devoted herself in June to the topic of "Tourette-like functional disorders and the influence of social media".
The emphasis is on "Tourette-like", which of course does not mean that it is not also a question of physical complaints.
However, tics such as uncontrolled swearing are very rare in real Tourette sufferers, but occur more often than average in the new patients, according to Müller-Vahl.
“We recommend that you no longer watch such videos,” said Müller-Vahl in the YouTube talk.
She considers the tics to be easily curable through psychological or psychiatric therapy.
According to the
WDR
, the
Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists advises
those affected to consult a specialist as soon as possible if they notice tics.
Those with statutory health insurance can contact a psychotherapist directly; a referral from the family doctor or pediatrician is not necessary.
(frs)