Behavior Therapy for Touretteʹs Syndrome and Chronic Tic Disorder: A Web-Based Video Illustration of Treatment Components Original Research Article

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.