Behavior Therapy for Tourette's Disorder: Utilization in a Community Sample and an Emerging Area of Practice for Psychologists

The current article describes the phenomenology and empirically supported treatments for Tourette's disorder (TD) and presents data on treatment utilization from two separate national surveys of adults with TD ( N = 672) and parents of children with TD ( N = 740). Despite a wealth of empirical evidence demonstrating its effectiveness, results suggest that most people with TD do not receive behavior therapy for the condition. Reasons for this include a lack of information about the disorder among consumers and providers, a shortage of providers trained in the treatment, and concern about possible negative effects of behavioral treatment. The article concludes with a discussion about dissemination efforts aimed at making behavior therapy more widely available to children and adults with chronic tics and a review of beliefs about the negative effects of behavior therapy.