
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgx3en/g...-concerned
EXCERPT: . . . Doctors who specialize in Tourette’s Syndrome and other tic disorders have turned their attention to people like Turnquist after seeing referrals for these rapid-onset conditions balloon from 1-5 percent of total cases pre-pandemic to 20-35 percent of them now, according to data from a viewpoint study published on August 13.
The researchers describe "a parallel pandemic of young people aged 12 to 25 years (almost exclusively girls and women) presenting with the rapid onset of complex motor and vocal tic-like behaviors," and state "there have been striking commonalities in the phenomenology of these tic-like behaviors observed across our centers in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia."
Curiously, the researchers state that for the patients they studied, in addition to experiencing pandemic-related stressors, "all endorsed exposure to influencers on social media (mainly TikTok) with tics or [Tourette's Syndrome]." Indeed, there are thousands of videos, some with millions of views, in a corner of TikTok affectionately referred to as "Tic Tok." According to the researchers, "In some cases, the patients specifically identified an association between these media exposures and the onset of symptoms…. This exposure to tics or tic-like behaviors is a plausible trigger for the behaviors observed in at least some of these patients, based on a disease modeling mechanism."
A separate article published in July, meanwhile, studied popular TikTok influencers with tics, and found that TikTok tics were "distinct" from typical Tourette's symptoms. "We believe this to be an example of mass sociogenic illness, which involves behaviors, emotions, or conditions spreading spontaneously through a group," the authors wrote.
Now beginning a PhD in molecular immunology and cancer biology at Dartmouth, Turnquist said that her STEM background positioned her better than most to parse through the most recent research on sudden-onset tic disorders, and she agreed with the researchers’ conclusions: “I feel like the stressors of the pandemic were a lot, and it probably pushed some threshold over the edge.”
[...] Pringsheim, Martino and other researchers working on this phenomenon believe that the stress of the past year—from lockdowns to school closures to social isolation—coupled with pre-existing mental health conditions in some cases led this population to subconsciously require an outlet for their distress. In other words, researchers currently believe the condition does not have a genetic component to its origin like Tourette's, but rather environmental or psychological ones.
According to the researchers’ theory, seeing popular creators with tic disorders on social media sites was the match that ignited the kindling. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
[...] Tics and tic-like behaviors can spread on the internet outside of TikTok, too. An article published August 23 in the journal Brain detailed German clinicians’ anecdotal experience of noticing an increase in patients with tic-like behaviors over the past two years that bore a resemblance to those that a popular YouTuber documented on the platform. The researchers theorized that the condition affecting their patients was a form of mass sociogenic illness—a poorly understood and contentious phenomenon once called mass hysteria...
[...] Not all clinicians agree with this assessment. An editorial published in April in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood suggested that future studies can test hypotheses related to mass sociogenic illness and a possible biological mechanism. And Martino said that the role of social media has been overemphasized, and it is just one factor among many in the development of these tic-like behaviors... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: . . . Doctors who specialize in Tourette’s Syndrome and other tic disorders have turned their attention to people like Turnquist after seeing referrals for these rapid-onset conditions balloon from 1-5 percent of total cases pre-pandemic to 20-35 percent of them now, according to data from a viewpoint study published on August 13.
The researchers describe "a parallel pandemic of young people aged 12 to 25 years (almost exclusively girls and women) presenting with the rapid onset of complex motor and vocal tic-like behaviors," and state "there have been striking commonalities in the phenomenology of these tic-like behaviors observed across our centers in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia."
Curiously, the researchers state that for the patients they studied, in addition to experiencing pandemic-related stressors, "all endorsed exposure to influencers on social media (mainly TikTok) with tics or [Tourette's Syndrome]." Indeed, there are thousands of videos, some with millions of views, in a corner of TikTok affectionately referred to as "Tic Tok." According to the researchers, "In some cases, the patients specifically identified an association between these media exposures and the onset of symptoms…. This exposure to tics or tic-like behaviors is a plausible trigger for the behaviors observed in at least some of these patients, based on a disease modeling mechanism."
A separate article published in July, meanwhile, studied popular TikTok influencers with tics, and found that TikTok tics were "distinct" from typical Tourette's symptoms. "We believe this to be an example of mass sociogenic illness, which involves behaviors, emotions, or conditions spreading spontaneously through a group," the authors wrote.
Now beginning a PhD in molecular immunology and cancer biology at Dartmouth, Turnquist said that her STEM background positioned her better than most to parse through the most recent research on sudden-onset tic disorders, and she agreed with the researchers’ conclusions: “I feel like the stressors of the pandemic were a lot, and it probably pushed some threshold over the edge.”
[...] Pringsheim, Martino and other researchers working on this phenomenon believe that the stress of the past year—from lockdowns to school closures to social isolation—coupled with pre-existing mental health conditions in some cases led this population to subconsciously require an outlet for their distress. In other words, researchers currently believe the condition does not have a genetic component to its origin like Tourette's, but rather environmental or psychological ones.
According to the researchers’ theory, seeing popular creators with tic disorders on social media sites was the match that ignited the kindling. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
[...] Tics and tic-like behaviors can spread on the internet outside of TikTok, too. An article published August 23 in the journal Brain detailed German clinicians’ anecdotal experience of noticing an increase in patients with tic-like behaviors over the past two years that bore a resemblance to those that a popular YouTuber documented on the platform. The researchers theorized that the condition affecting their patients was a form of mass sociogenic illness—a poorly understood and contentious phenomenon once called mass hysteria...
[...] Not all clinicians agree with this assessment. An editorial published in April in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood suggested that future studies can test hypotheses related to mass sociogenic illness and a possible biological mechanism. And Martino said that the role of social media has been overemphasized, and it is just one factor among many in the development of these tic-like behaviors... (MORE - missing details)