GOSH patients feature in new Tourette’s documentary

25 Mar 2013, 3:39 p.m.

L-R patients Marco, Connor and Callum from ITV tourettes documentary ©Maverick/ITV

Follow the progress of Callum, Connor and Marco in Kids with Tourette’s – In Their Own Words, on Thursday 28 March, 9 – 10pm ITV.

Tourette's Syndrome affects one in a hundred children, most of them boys. This documentary follows patients Callum, Connor and Marco who live with this condition through six months of treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH).

In the GOSH Tourette’s syndrome clinic Dr Tara Murphy teaches the boys different techniques to control the tics by suppressing them. They learn to recognise the thought or physical signal ahead of the tic and how to develop a competing response.

GOSH clinical psychologist, Dr Murphy explains:

“We have a specialist national tic clinic. We also do some group therapies, the idea of which is improving acceptance and education around tics and encouraging the children to get to know each other and accept the condition.”

Along the way the children form friendships, get on with family life, and discuss the challenges as well as the more humorous aspects of living with the condition. This is their story, in their own words. It offers a compelling insight into Tourette’s and how it can be treated, with unprecedented access to Great Ormond Street Hospital’s clinic, which deals with the most severe and complex cases in the country. Emotional and inspirational, this one-off hour-long documentary offers an astonishing insight into an often-misunderstood condition.

Read about Tourette's in GOSH patient Callum's own words in his blog.