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Adults and children living with Tourette Syndrome (TS) and their families now have access to a specialized treatment program, developed in partnership between Rutgers' Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) and the Tourette Syndrome Association of New Jersey, Inc. (TSANJ). The Rutgers-TSANJ Therapeutic program is offered through the Psychological Clinic at GSAPP, which provides a variety of psychological services to the public.
This is the first time a Tourette Syndrome organization has partnered with a university-based psychological clinic to better serve the Tourette community. There are an estimated 7,000 people in New Jersey believed to have full-blown TS and very few resources available to assist them.
Under this partnership we are creating specialized treatment programs to address the needs of Tourette patients and their families, provide a unique hands-on learning experience for advanced graduate students and increase awareness of TS in the professional community.
Services:
The Rutgers-TSANJ Therapeutic Program offers individual and family therapy, programs for school-age children and adults with TS, social skills development sessions, referrals to physicians, and testing services. The program will also feature training and accredited workshops on TS and associated disorders for practitioners, physicians, educators and students.
What is Tourette Syndrome?
TS is an inherited neurological disorder characterized by repeated involuntary facial, head or body movements and uncontrollable vocal (phonic) sounds called tics, such as grunting, sniffing or barking. In a few cases, tics can include inappropriate words and phrases. Symptoms usually occur in early childhood, between the ages of 6 and 8, but can also appear during the teen-age years.
Associated behaviors include obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADD/ADHD), learning disabilities (LD), difficulties with impulse control and sleep disorders. An estimated 200,000 Americans have full-blown TS, and as many as 1 in 200 show a partial expression of the disorder.
Clients:
Our clients are referred from TSANJ, the Rutgers community and also the surrounding communities, schools and human service agencies.
Staff:
Dr. Judith Margolin is the program's clinical supervisor. Dr. Margolin is a psychologist with expertise in child development, impulse control disorders, parent training, and social and emotional learning. She works extensively with parents and children, and consults with school districts from pre-school through high school.
Dr. Margolin handles the daily operations of the program and directs a staff of therapists, all of whom are advanced doctoral students at GSAPP. The therapists work directly with individuals, families and groups in the program under Dr. Margolin's supervision. Program staff are involved in ongoing training developed jointly by TSANJ and GSAPP.
How to Contact Us:
To reach the TS therapeutic program at the Center for Applied Psychology in Piscataway, call 732 972 4459. You may also reach the Tourette Syndrome Association of New Jersey at 198 High St., Somerville, NJ, 08876, or visit the TSANJ Web site
Treatment Research
The TS Program at the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology in Piscataway is researching two new treatments that may be helpful for people with Tourette Syndrome. Neurofeedback is a method of training the brain using an instrument that registers the electrical signal from the brain and provides feedback on a computer screen. The experience is like playing a video game by training your brain’s state. The other treatment uses biofeedback from muscle tension and trains the muscles to relax also using a computer screen to provide feedback. Some preliminary studies of neurofeedback therapy have reported both methods to be helpful to TS patients as well as others with movement disorders, OCD, ADHD and sleep disorders. Directly training the brain, or training the muscles involved with tics and movements both appear to be safe and sensible methods for relieving many of the TS related symptoms. If one or the other of these treatments proves to be more helpful, participants in the other group will then be offered the second treatment.
The Rutgers TS program is enrolling interested TS patients in a randomized study of these treatments. Patients will be assigned to one or the other treatment group and will have two training sessions per week for 20 weeks. This therapy will be provided free of charge, and the participants will only be asked to fill out various rating forms before and after. The experience of biofeedback is almost always pleasant and relaxing, and there are no invasive procedures involved.
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