Is TikTok causing sudden tics in teenage girls?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of TikTok by now. How entertaining, right? But according to a recent study, using the app may have an alarming effect on your child’s health. 

With the pandemic keeping us quarantined in our houses and left to entertain ourselves, you may have already used it to create a quick video (or two), or you might have heard it from family members who have found joy in endlessly scrolling through one of the most popular social media applications of today. 

With its surge in popularity, not just in the country, but also the whole world, recent news and studies have linked TikTok to a condition that’s been affecting a lot of teenagers lately: Tourettes syndrome, which causes tics.

Since the start of the pandemic, teen females from all over the world have shown signs of tics — physical jerking gestures and verbal outbursts.

Doctors who specialise in movement disorders were initially baffled. Tics are uncommon in girls, but these teenagers had an exceptionally high number of them, and they appeared out of nowhere.

Experts from premier paediatric hospitals in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom spent months doing their research on the children and consulting with one another. They observed that the majority of the girls shared a common interest — TikTok.

Results from the investigation and observation say that the girls were viewing videos of TikTok celebrities who claimed to have Tourette syndrome, a nervous system condition that leads people to produce repetitive, involuntary motions or sounds, according to a slew of recent medical journal papers. 

On TikTok, there is plenty of tic-like behaviour. When doctors in the United Kingdom first started looking into the phenomena in January, videos with the hashtag #tourettes had over 1.25 billion views, a figure that has since risen to 4.8 billion.

Other contributing factors

However, some doctors are wary of the assumed effects of TikTok on teens, claiming that while the number of cases they’re seeing is far higher than previously, it’s not an epidemic.

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Dr Joseph McGuire, an associate professor in John Hopkins University's Tourette’s Centre, said in a Wall Street Journal article, “​There are some kids who watch social media and develop tics and some who don’t have any access to social media and develop tics. I think there are a lot of contributing factors, including anxiety, depression, and stress.”

More importantly, doctors say that the majority of the teenagers had previously been diagnosed with anxiety or depression, which was triggered or exacerbated by the pandemic.

According to some researchers, the sudden increase in TikTok tics is a “pandemic within a pandemic”, given that the kids are faced with school work and feelings of isolation, loneliness and emotional struggles. 

Furthermore, Dr Donald Gilbert, a neurologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre who specialises in Tourette syndrome and paediatric movement disorders, believes the symptoms of the teens who have watched the said TikToks are real and most likely indicate functional neurological disorders, which include vocal tics and strange bodily movements that aren’t caused by an illness. 

TikTok tics can be a mass psychogenic illness

In the last year, over 30 teenagers were referred to Rush University Medical Centre for a variety of involuntary behaviours, ranging from jerking arm movements to curse words to head and neck twitches.

According to some clinicians, self-injurious conduct was frequent, with many patients having bruises and abrasions as a result of their tics. 

Dr Caroline Olvera, a movement disorders fellow, noted that many teenagers were saying “beans” with a British accent. Even patients who couldn’t communicate in English did so. And some of these patients recalled seeing TikTok videos of other people with tics.

So Dr Olvera took to TikTok and discovered a top influencer who has the syndrome and who frequently blurts “beans” in a British accent.

After studying 3,000 TikTok videos on Tourettes, she found that 19 of the 28 top Tourette influencers reported having new tics from watching other creators’ videos.

Previous New York study shows mass psychogenic illness

Previously, there have been clusters of tic-like diseases, including a well-known example a decade ago in which several youths in upstate New York had tics that were described as “mass psychogenic illness”.

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According to a recent paper written by Mariam Hull and Mered Parnes, child neurologists at Texas Children’s Hospital who specialise in paediatric movement disorders, such cases were mostly confined to specific geographic locations, but social media appears to be providing a new way for psychological disorders to spread quickly around the world.

Thus, the said cases of teens developing tics from watching TikTok videos of Tourette influencers may be explained through the same phenomenon. 

As doctors from different parts of the world started communicating with one another, they found they were seeing the same thing.

The similarity of tics is a sign that the relationship between social media and teens was the underlying cause. Actual Tourette syndrome tics are distinct from one another, rather than being overwhelmingly similar as manifested by the said cases.

Additionally, these tics appear to be unique to a few TikTok content creators with Tourette syndrome. These users’ videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of times — similar to Dr Olvera’s findings. 

Why are teens developing TikTok tics?

Even if the behaviour appears to be identical, sudden-onset tics do not indicate Tourette syndrome, according to Dr Mohammed Aldosari, a paediatric neurologist.

Rather, studies suggest that they have a movement problem caused by tension and anxiety. This is then exacerbated by the epidemic and teens’ increased use of social media.

Tics are a mechanism for the brain to cope with excessive stress. In other words, their brains manifest an emotional stressor as a physical ailment. 

Teens who are depressed or anxious are more likely to acquire this disorder. Teenage females are more prone than teenage boys to suffer from sadness and anxiety.

This could explain the rise in tics among teen girls in particular, given that Tourette syndrome mostly affects boys, not girls.

Treatment for teens with sudden tics

While medicine can help individuals with Tourette syndrome when behavioural therapy isn’t working, Dr Aldosari believes that teens with TikTok-induced tics will benefit more from counselling.

Other doctors propose cognitive behavioural treatment. They also advise patients to avoid using TikTok for several weeks in order to unlearn these tics.

What can parents do about the negative impact of social media on youth?

Once we equip our children with gadgets, we know that they have part of the power and the choice on which apps they use and the media they consume. However, there are still things that we can do to help lessen the negative impact of screen and media usage on our children.

1. Monitor digital consumption

The relationship between social media and teens is one of the underlying reasons for sudden tics. Thus, responsible and moderate social media use is one of the answers. Moreover, parents can link their TikTok account to their children’s to enable content limitations using TikTok’s Family Pairing function.

2. Have a discussion about it

Talk to your child about the detrimental effects of TikTok on teens. Let them know about the dangers of spending too much time online including mental health issues and sleeping disorders.

3. Get physical and promote exercise

Encourage your child to exercise and get physically active, even if it is just inside the house or in your backyard. There are a lot of physical activities that don’t require one to go out of the house. For example, playing jump rope, and helping you with gardening and watering plants.

4. Consult a specialist

If you think your child is manifesting Tourette syndrome symptoms or sudden tics, or if you are worried that your child may be having a screen dependency disorder, immediately consult a doctor or a specialist. He or she can properly guide and assess your child. 

READ ALSO: YouTube Shorts emulates TikTok with upcoming custom voiceover feature

This article was first published in theAsianparent.