Behavior Therapy for Tourette's Syndrome and Chronic Tic Disorder: A Web-Based Video Illustration of Treatment Components

Tic disorders have traditionally been conceptualized as neurobiological conditions and consequently within the purview of neurologists. In the last few decades, however, a number of psychosocial treatments have been developed and tested. To date, a behavioral treatment called Habit Reversal Training (HRT) has garnered the most empirical support as an efficacious treatment for tic disorders. HRT is a multicomponent, short-term, behavioral intervention. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the behavioral treatment of tic disorders including a detailed description of the core components of HRT: awareness training and competing response training. We will also review function-based assessment and treatment strategies, which have been emphasized in more recent behavioral approaches. The accompanying videos demonstrate aspects of these clinical techniques.