What are face tics ? These are uncontrolled muscle cramps, involuntary muscle contractions. Most often, the patient has a quick blinking of eyelashes, sharp jerking movements of the eyes or wrinkling of the nose. Similar phenomena are also called mimic spasms. Although they occur involuntarily, that is, regardless of the desire or unwillingness of a person, they can be temporarily suppressed by conscious effort.
A wide variety of diseases and conditions can cause a problem such as nerve tic. Causes and treatment in adults are rarely considered, since pathology is most often diagnosed in children with various neurological disorders. Nevertheless, adult patients also complain of tick quite often. This phenomenon is most often found in males than in girls and women.
Types of Ticks
Medicine knows a number of diverse tics, which differ significantly from each other in the background, clinical manifestations and severity of the condition. By the intensity and frequency of muscle cramps, it is often possible to diagnose a primary neurological disorder.
Transient Tick Disorders
Most often, doctors are faced with a symptom such as transient nervous tic. Causes and treatment in adults are characterized by comparative ease - such disorders in most cases go away by themselves. In this case, involuntary muscle movements do not last long and can be repeated every day for a month or longer, but the total duration does not exceed one year.
The tick of this variety implies an irresistible desire to make a certain movement and even make a specific sound. It can be expressed in the following:
- frequent blinking of eyes;
- bloating nostrils;
- raising eyebrows;
- mouth opening;
- tongue click;
- throat cleansing;
- grunt.
Treatment is usually not required.
Chronic motor tics
This disorder is less common than transient tics, but more often than Touretteās syndrome. To establish a diagnosis of "chronic motor neural tic" (the causes and treatment in adults are discussed below), the patient must observe muscle cramps for several years, with each attack lasting more than three months.
Excessive blinking of eyelashes, twisting and twitching of the eyes are most common. Unlike the transient tics described above, chronic motor cramps do not stop even during sleep.
While children usually do not require therapy, adult patients are advised to consult a specialist - especially if the face is involuntarily distorted in grimaces or the eye twitches. Treatment will depend on the intensity of the manifestations of the disorder.
Tourette's syndrome
Although Touretteās syndrome is considered a childhood illness, it is often observed in adulthood, especially if the child suffered from a severe form of pathology and did not receive timely adequate treatment. When is this particular nervous tic diagnosed? Symptoms from the following list allow you to determine Touretteās syndrome:
- waving hands;
- protruding tongue;
- shrug;
- touching the intimate areas of your own body;
- pronouncing swear words;
- obscene gestures.
To establish the diagnosis of Touretteās syndrome, the patient must suffer from vocal tics along with physical impairment. Voice ticks include excessive hiccups, frequent clearing of the throat and constant communication in high tones (screaming) for no apparent reason. Some people also too often repeat swearing (swearing) expressions or any one word or phrase.
If the patient is a child, methods of behavioral psychotherapy are usually enough to cure such an unpleasant symptom as a nervous tic. The causes and treatment in adults are more serious in comparison, therefore, in severe cases, doctors often prescribe medication.
Causes and Risk Factors
The root cause of tic of any kind is a neurological disorder, which can only be determined by a qualified doctor. However, some circumstances can activate the "sleeping" pathology and complicate the course of the primary disease. In addition, exposure to risk factors leads to an increase in the frequency and intensity of ticks. These factors include:
- stress;
- excessive agitation;
- fatigue;
- increase in body temperature;
- stimulant drugs;
- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder;
- obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Diagnostics
Among these disorders, it is relatively easy to diagnose a nervous tic of the eye. The causes and treatment will depend on the initial pathology, so after discussing the symptoms, the doctor will most likely redirect you to a psychologist to assess the state of your psyche.
It is very important to immediately delete physiological diseases from the possible causes of the tick. The doctor will ask you to clarify if you are not observing other symptoms of the disease before deciding whether to conduct diagnostic examinations. You may need an electroencephalogram (EEG), which will measure the electrical activity of the brain. This examination helps to detect epilepsy, which can cause a problem such as a nervous tic of the eye.
Causes and treatment are also determined by the results of electromyography - an examination conducted to identify impaired functioning of muscles or nerves. Since the tic is primarily a muscle spasm against the background of neurology, the results of EMG can have a significant impact on the choice of treatment method.
How to distinguish a tick from Lou Gehrig's disease
- Lou Gehrigās disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a rare disorder, while various types of tics, including not only facial spasms , but also atypical manifestations such as a nervous tic of the finger, are a very common problem. .
- Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis suffer primarily from muscle weakness, and only secondarily from involuntary muscle contractions. With tics, the need for involuntary movements initially arises, which in some cases may be accompanied by a chronic feeling of fatigue.
- Often with both pathologies, the patient twitches the eye. Treatment, as a rule, does not have an obvious effect, since an ordinary tic is a symptom, not a disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is simply not amenable to therapy. Nevertheless, the nature of the spasm in these disorders is significantly different: ordinary motor disorder begins in one area of āāthe face or body and can eventually migrate to another area, while cramps in ALS, starting in one place, over time cover the entire body.
- In transient and chronic motor disorders, involuntary contractions occur in healthy muscle tissue. With Lou Gehrigās disease, spasm is caused by the gradual necrosis of the muscles. This difference can be personally observed on electromyography, which gives normal results with a simple tic and indicates the presence of severe pathology in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Treatment
Ordinary tics do not require special treatment, as they pass by themselves and are not an independent disease. However, an adult patient may need therapy if this disorder prevents them from working fully or leading a normal social life.
If you have a nervous tick diagnosed, what should I do to get rid of it? The most common methods for treating ticks include:
- psychological stress reduction programs, stress management training;
- psychotherapy;
- behavioral therapy;
- taking dopamine-blocking drugs;
- taking medications to treat the root cause of the pathology, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder;
- Botox injections to create the effect of temporary paralysis of the facial muscles.