Treatment for Tourette’s Syndrome and Other Tic Disorders
What Is Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics/Tourette’s (CBIT)?
CBIT is an established therapy that teaches people to change their behavior over time and tic less. Research on CBIT has been done with children and adults with Tourette syndrome.
CBIT is based on three simple observations about tics:
- Tics can get better and worse on their own.
- Tics are often done in response to a feeling or an urge.
- Tics can often be stopped, at least for a short time.
From these conclusions, CBIT decreases the stress caused by Tics through helping you or your child develop various skills. Through Habit Reversal Training, Tourette’s sufferers learn to manage stress and solve problems to minimize triggers for tics, gain a more complex understanding of their tics and urges, and practice new and opposite muscle behaviors when feeling the urge to tic.
By developing and mastering “competing responses” to tic urges, the association between the urges and the original tic starts to break down and become less automatic.
If you or your loved one would like to discuss treatment for Tourette’s, or CBIT, please contact us at (818)547-2623.