ATLANTA – According to a new 40-page report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on May 17, 1 in 5 children suffers with a mental health disorder.
The report, titled “Mental Health Surveillance Among Children in the United States from 2005– 2011,” notes on page 14 (“Tic Disorders and Tourette Syndrome”) that 79 percent of all children who have been diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome also have received a diagnosis of at least one mental health disorder, including – but not limited to – ADHD; behavioral problems such as conduct disorder; depression; anxiety; or an autism spectrum disorder. Tourette Syndrome is an inherited, misunderstood, misdiagnosed neurological disorder characterized by involuntary sounds or movements known as tics. According to the CDC, it affects 1 in 100 children.
“TS has a complex, often subtle range of manifestations that cut across professional disciplines, affecting mental health and social functioning (anxiety, depression, OCD); learning and school adaptation (vulnerability to ADHD, learning difficulties, stigmatization); and motor coordination, as well as neurological functioning,” says Dr. Robert King, medical director at the TS/OCD Clinic and Yale Child Study Center at Yale University.
“Treatment and educational planning involves special expertise and resources, often unavailable even in good primary care medical and mental health settings, to coordinate behavioral and family interventions, educational assessment and planning, school consultation and advocacy and to provide consultation to clinicians, parents and educators, as well as more traditional services such as pharmacotherapy and long-term case management,” Dr. King adds.
The complete report is available for free download on the CDC website. For more information about Tourette Syndrome and its co-morbid disorders, please call NJCTS at 908-575-7350 or visit www.njcts.org.