Handbook of Tourette’s syndrome and Related Tic and Behavioural Disorders

This new edition thoroughly deserves its title of handbook, being an authoritative summary of current understanding of these disorders. The preface mentions the increasing interest in Tourette’s syndrome at the time of the first edition in 1993. This interest has continued to increase since then, together with interest in associated and parallel disorders, such as attention– deficit and hyperactivity disorders, and these are well covered in the present volume. The book is multi-author, each one dealing well with a particular aspect of Tourette’s and its associated disorders. The authors are distinguished in their field and give definitive, contemporary accounts of the disorders they describe. I was impressed by the chapter on premonitory sensory experiences in Tourette’s tics. This reviews the increasing appreciation of sensory phenomena as part of tic disorder. Traditional divisions of phenomena into motor and sensory, or objective and subjective, are too simplistic. This realisation will become increasingly important in understanding other neuropsychiatric disorders such as somatoform disorder. Another impressive chapter was that on the natural history of Tourette’s. This reviews how the same genetic disorder can be differently expressed according to age at onset, and considers factors leading to protracted disorder or spontaneous remission in different individuals with the syndrome. The chapter on drug-induced tics is a model of clarity, crystallising our current understanding of neurotransmitter function and thought provoking for future understanding in this field. That on rating tic severity allows the non-mathematical reader to understand the statistical concepts underlying such ratings. I found a few chapters, such as treatment of obsessive–compulsive disorder, to be superfluous to the main theme of the book, but others, such as the neurosurgical treatment of Tourette’s, including deep brain stimulation, were quite exciting and those on genetic counselling and on children and adolescents with Tourette’s are very thoughtful. Oliver Sacks’ contribution (‘Tourette’s syndrome, a human condition’) and that of the Tourette’s syndrome association (promoting research into the disorder) provide a fitting finale to this handbook, which can be thoroughly recommended.