Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome

In the early part of the 20th century the disease of tics was regarded as a psychiatric disorder and from 1920 those suffering from tics were referred for psychoanalysis. After 1970 the disease of Gilles de la Tourette experienced a revival. The American couple Shapiro rediscovered the disorder as a neurological disease and named it the Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome.

The first comprehensive description of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome as a neurological condition dates back to 1885 when Georges Gilles de la Tourette published his case series of nine patients sharing the clinical triad of tics, echolalia, and coprolalia. In his article, Gilles de la Tourette presented some earlier descriptions of this disorder.

Georges Albert Edouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (1857-1904), a French neurologist and pupil of Jean Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris. His father was a merchant but belonged to a family of physicians. Georges lacked discipline and had a difficult character with unpredictable mood swings. He was peculiar, but exhibited a keen intelligence

At age 16, he started medical school in Poitiers, France. His mother wouldn’t let him study in Paris because she thought that the city of love had too many temptations for young Georges.

He has gained common recognition through his description of the 'Maladie des Tics'. This complex neuropsychiatric disorder, later known as the 'Tourette's syndrome', nowadays is accepted as a specific entity of movement disorders.

He published scientific works on epilepsia, neurasthenia and syphilitic myelitis. He died on 22 May 1904 with advanced dementia at the Lausanne Psychiatric Hospital in Cery.
Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome