Tackling Tourette troubles
07May08
Luke Lazdins has Tourette syndrome.
KALORAMA schoolboy Luke Lazdins is like any other 10-year-old.
He loves playing the keyboard, riding his motorbike and looking after his pet fish.
He also has Tourette syn- drome, a neurological disorder characterised by involuntary body movements, or tics, and noises.
Mum Lauretta Lazdins said Luke was diagnosed with the condition when he was five.
He was also diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, last year.
He had previously been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and prescribed the stimulant drug Ritalin.
Luke said he was "worried" when he started getting tics and it was frustrating when he had a bad day with them.
But he said he had learned to live with it.
Mrs Lazdins said Luke had good and bad days, but was now on medication for the condition, which had helped.
"Sometimes he'll have tics when they're nearly on top of each other all day and they can be swearing, the worst you can imagine," she said.
"Sometimes it's just body jerks or little noises and squeals."
Mrs Lazdins said stress could exacerbate it, but sleeping helped.
She said Mt Dandenong Primary, where Luke is a year 4 student, had been "excellent".
"All kids at school are really good he doesn't get kids picking on him," she said.
"He's actually quite happy to tell kids what it is."
But she said it was a different story when they were out in public, with other children staring at him and other parents telling her to control him.
Mrs Lazdins said Luke's condition had taken its toll on the family, and they avoided holidays, restaurants and cinemas.
But Luke said he didn't feel like he'd missed out on anything.
Mrs Lazdins said she hoped Luke would outgrow the condition or learn to control it better.
She said when she first found out that Luke had Tourette's she was "so distressed", but the Tourette Syndrome Association of Victoria had helped her.
Mother sees prescribed drug as son's syndrome cause
LAURETTA Lazdins warns other parents against the drug Ritalin, which she thinks caused her son to get Tourette syndrome.
She said her son, Luke, was put on the drug at age four after being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
After being on the drug, he started experiencing "eyeball blinking", followed by other involuntary movements, called tics. "By the time a year was up he was doing full body tics," she said. "We took him off the Ritalin because it got so bad." She felt the family was "pushed into" using the drug to medicate Luke.
"(Doctors) do say that sometimes you can get Tourette's without being given the Ritalin and that Ritalin can bring it out earlier, but still, he had no signs of Tourette's before Ritalin," she said.
But Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia president Robyn Latimer said while there had been concerns about a link between stimulant drugs like Ritalin and Tourette syndrome, studies had never proved it caused the condition. It could exacerbate it but it was "very difficult to know what's making what happen".
Ms Latimer said behavioural problems like ADHD were often the "first clues" to Tourette syndrome and doctors should tell patients the risks associated with the drug before prescribing it.
* It's Tourette Syndrome Awareness Week. For more information on the condition, go to www.tsavic.org.au.
