A “Tourette-like” illness is being spread through social media, psychiatrists say.

According to a report by Business Insider, as a result of the “mass social media-induced illness” people are developing tics “caught” from watching social media videos of people ticcing.

A recent study by German psychiatrists has found the sharp increase in patients presenting with functional tics has been attributed to the rise in social media content that shows people ticcing.

The group of Hanover Medical School experts in Germany who did the study explains there is a “positive correlation” between the increase in patients struggling with tics to an escalation of “videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube of people presenting with Tourette’s syndrome,” the report stated.

The paper, published by the Oxford University Press, discusses “the German Internet fame of Jan Zimmermann, a YouTuber with 2.23 million subscribers on his channel Gewitter im Komf (Thunderstorm in Brain), who states he has Tourette’s syndrome,” the report said.

How was the connection made to social media?

There was a clue that this illness was being “caught” from social media: the tics were identical to Zimmermann’s. Reportedly, the tics were mostly verbal and “included people saying “heil Hitler,” “Du bist häßlich” (you are ugly) and “pommes” (chips).”

The study states “a remarkably high number of young patients has been referred to our specialised Tourette outpatient clinic presenting with symptoms closely resembling the ones Jan Zimmermann shows in his videos.”

The presented condition though is functional tics, also known as “Functional Movement Disorder,” rather than Tourette’s, the study explained.

The main difference between this “Tourette’s-like” MSMI and Tourette’s is “the MSMI comes on very suddenly and often later in life,” as opposed to Tourette’s syndrome which “often onsets in early childhood.” The MSMI will also “present as a countless range of tics - rather than a few specific ones,” the study explains.

The study also notes while this is a sociogenic illness, which if it becomes difficult to manage, psychiatrists suggest one seek medical support, they also suggest it could be aggravated by a “culture-bound stress reaction to Covid-19 and eco-anxiety.”

 - TNS