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Has anyone used Botox for tics?

Has anyone tried using Botox for their child’s tics? My son has some major facial tics going on, and I read one Canadian study — that’s on this blog by the way — and wondered if anyone had successfully used it.

The study showed lots of success and I am willing to give it a try if I can buy my son some relief from the painful ones of his eyebrows going up and down on the one side, and would love if it they could do something for the neck/jaw movement as well as it causes him a LOT of pain because of the muscles. I even saw where they injected into the vocal chords for the constant noises and it was 95 percent effective.

I can’t understand why this isn’t readily available to our kids. Mine is 14, by the way, and is extremely distressed by his tics — no medication has worked at all for him. Thanks for any info!

7 Comments

  1. I live in west palm beach. Is there a dr local that does this treatment ?

  2. Thank you so much for this information! My son has debilitating. Tooth, neck and vocal tics !A lifetime of suffering . I will reach out to this doctor !

  3. Hi Elizabeth,

    My son, age 24, has tried Botox for his shoulder tics which were causing him a lot of pain. It definitely helped to give him some degree of relief. Unfortunately, once the Botox inhibited him from doing the painful shoulder tic, he replaced it with a similar tic that turned out to be less painful but a little more disruptive to him. He opted out of any further Botox shots only because he says that he’d rather just deal with the tics he knows he has… rather than develop any different ones. That is just his opinion.( I think that in his mind he didn’t really believe the shots would help and so he might have set himself up for failure.)

    I have heard good things about it helping facial tics. I don’t know where you live but there is an excellent doctor at Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ who is very familiar with the use of Botox with tics. Her name is Dr. Rabin in the Movement Disorders Program. If you live anywhere nearby I would contact her. Best of Luck to you.

    • Thank you so much Eileen! Just the info i was looking for. My son is very anxious to try this; so i will be contacting Dr. Rabin on Monday. He is only 14, I’m hoping that wont be an issue…

      • Elizabeth, I would love to hear how your son makes out. Please post a follow-up.

        We’ll keep you in our thoughts. Best Wishes.

        Eileen

    • My husband had a similar experience. After the shots, he replaced one tic for another.

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