Neurologists at Vanderbilt Health sound the alarm about functional tic disorder presenting mostly in female patients between 13 and 18 years old three to four times more than in October 2020.
"We think that social media and platforms like TikTok could be a factor. It's complicated...Certainly many of these individuals with function disorders are already have a predisposition they're anxious, maybe socially, more socially isolated," explained Vanderbilt University Medical Center Neurology Assistant Professor & Division of Pediatric Neurology Pediatrics Assistant Professor Dr. David Isaacs.
"We have been telling our patients when we see individuals who have this diagnosis, you know, to really try to limit their exposure, you know, to avoid watching TikTok and social media platforms with tics, you know, where people are watching videos of tics," said Isaacs.
Research published in the Movement Disorders medical journal echoes what Vanderbilt neurologists are seeing. According to that research during the pandemic, tic-related and Tourette syndrome related videos have been gaining popularity on TikTok by young females. Within a 3-week period in March 2021, views of videos with the hashtags "tourette" and "tic" increased by 7% to a total of 5.8 billion views."
TL;DR: Teen girls are, because of the pandemic, spending more time watching people with tourettes and tics on Tik Tok and subsequently developing their own tics. This proves what we already know; the female brain is incapable of individual thought and must mimic the herd.
"We think that social media and platforms like TikTok could be a factor. It's complicated...Certainly many of these individuals with function disorders are already have a predisposition they're anxious, maybe socially, more socially isolated," explained Vanderbilt University Medical Center Neurology Assistant Professor & Division of Pediatric Neurology Pediatrics Assistant Professor Dr. David Isaacs.
"We have been telling our patients when we see individuals who have this diagnosis, you know, to really try to limit their exposure, you know, to avoid watching TikTok and social media platforms with tics, you know, where people are watching videos of tics," said Isaacs.
Research published in the Movement Disorders medical journal echoes what Vanderbilt neurologists are seeing. According to that research during the pandemic, tic-related and Tourette syndrome related videos have been gaining popularity on TikTok by young females. Within a 3-week period in March 2021, views of videos with the hashtags "tourette" and "tic" increased by 7% to a total of 5.8 billion views."
TL;DR: Teen girls are, because of the pandemic, spending more time watching people with tourettes and tics on Tik Tok and subsequently developing their own tics. This proves what we already know; the female brain is incapable of individual thought and must mimic the herd.
