In 2022, doctors around the world were asked to examine thousands of new children who suddenly developed various tics. Many patients watched his viral videos. tik tak Starring teenagers who claimed to have Tourette’s syndrome.
A flurry of headlines about “TikTok ticking” followed in many media outlets. Similar teak waves have been recorded in previous centuries. Mysterious symptoms can spread quickly in a gated community, especially if it is facing a general calamity.
TikTok tics are one of the modern and most widespread examples of this phenomenon: they were recorded at a unique moment in history when the pandemic caused widespread alarm and led to isolation. Sometimes social media was the only way to get in touch and express or get support.
Now experts are trying to isolate the many possible factors—internal and external—that made these teens so sensitive to what they were watching online.
According to a University of Calgary study that analyzed nearly 300 cases from eight countries, 80% of teens were diagnosed with a mental disorder, and a third reported a traumatic experience in the past. In the new study, which has not yet been published, the Canadian team also found a correlation with female gender, as the vast majority of them showed symptoms in girls, according to the New York Times.
Another notable feature of the “TikTok tick” was the speed at which the phenomenon subsided. As teens re-established their pre-pandemic social lives, the incidence of new tics has nearly leveled off.
“We all recognize that the mind can push the body to take certain actions,” the doctor said. Isobel Heyman, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Institute of Child Health at the University of California, London, has published the first report on tics occurring during the pandemic. After all, most people have experienced palpitations of fear or nauseating anxiety. knot“.
“But when the symptoms are weird and severe enough — like a seizure, patients can’t walk, or tic-like movements — we think, ‘How could the brain be causing these symptoms? Dr. Heyman said. – It just might.
Although mass psychogenic illnesses (MPIs) have been repeatedly recorded in history, social media is now changing an important parameter, as they dissolve the geographical limitation of these phenomena. Distribution can be international as people from all over the world get access to the same material.
Influential tics
Dr. Tamara Pringsheim and Dr. David Martineau, a movement expert at the University of Calgary, happened to see a post on the American Academy of Neurology’s online forum that piqued their interest. “My office is seeing an unprecedented rise in teenage girls with acid, explosive, movement and vocal tics,” the Kansas City doctor wrote.
Canadian neuroscientists have noticed the same thing. Most young patients did not have symptoms consistent with the literature on Tourette’s syndrome, which usually affects boys and begins at an early age. In contrast, new patients were often rushed to the emergency room with tics that seemed to develop overnight.
