A 2022 survey among people diagnosed with Tourette syndrome (TS) suggested that a high proportion experiences some degree of pain, likely related to the tics. Now, in 2025, another research group has reviewed 116 articles to assess reports of pain in individuals with TS. This group found that pain was reported in 47-60% of people with TS (more often than in the general population) and that TS-related pain had a negative impact on their quality of life.
The authors distinguished five different types of pain in TS: (1) pain caused by the tics (“tic-related immediate pain”), (2) pain resulting from injury or trauma (“tic-related delayed injury/pain”), (3) pain related to suppression of the tics, (4) pain related to the premonitory urge that precedes the tic, and (5) associated primary pain syndromes (such as headache or migraine).
Although people with TS experience pain frequently, most clinical studies of TS do not collect information about pain. Even when therapies that improve pain in non-TS related conditions were tested in TS to make the tics more manageable, their effects on pain among the TS patients were not studied.
Researchers need better methods of evaluating pain in TS so that we can understand the causes of TS-related pain and how often pain is experienced in people with TS. Hopefully, future studies will help with this frequently experienced problem.
Summary of:
Pain in Tourette Syndrome: A Comprehensive Review
Bryan Green 1, Allison Waters 2, Joohi Jimenez-Shahed 3Published in J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2025 Feb;35(1):23-36. doi: 10.1089/cap.2024.0025. Epub 2024 Nov 19