Gen Z is developing unexplained tics after going online and doctors are concerned

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.”