Tic disorders in the adolescent.

This chapter addresses the multidimensional nature of tic disorders. The several major dimensions include (1) duration of symptoms (from less than 1 year to lifelong); (2) intensity of symptoms (from mild to severe); (3) frequency of symptoms (from rare to constant); (4) variety of symptoms (from single motor group/single phonic tic to multiple occurrences of both types); (5) complexity of tics (from simple motor/phonic tics to tics involving multiple motor groups or the production of multiple sounds including involuntary phrases); (6) response to treatment (from good to minimal or no response); and (7) comorbid psychiatric disorders (from none to multiple). These dimensions and their relationship to a variety of tic disorder diagnoses are explored.