On June 5^th, the first US statistics regarding the number of diagnosed cases of Tourette’s syndrome (TS) based on a national U.S. sample was released by the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) - one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services in the USA. They collected data about 64,034 persons aged 6-17 years, through telephone interviews with their parents or guardians. The parents were asked if a doctor or other health-care provider had ever told them that their child had Tourette syndrome (TS), how severe they would describe the TS to be, and if the child also had co-occurring conditions.

The estimated prevalence for ever receiving a TS diagnosis was 3 per 1,000, which represents around 148,000 children in the United States. Since the prevalence estimate described in the CDC’s report is based on parent report of a TS diagnosis, and the detection and diagnosis of TS is less likely for children with limited access to specialty health-care services, the prevalence of 3 per 1,000 likely is an underestimate of TS prevalence in children. Of all reported TS cases, 27% were described as moderate to severe, and 79% had also been diagnosed with at least one co-occurring mental health or neurodevelopmental condition.

For the CDC’s website: http://www.cdc.gov/Features/TouretteSyndrome/.

For the original report, see:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5821a1.htm?s_cid=mm5821a1_e