Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional adhd and eye blinking/twitching

I've noticed that our gifted, ADHD son, now 27, has developed eye twitching-blinking. Has anyone noticed this in their ADHD kids? I once worked with a young man who with ADHD who had similar uncontrolled eye movements. Our youngest, also ADHD only had eye twitches while on an ADHD med. I'm just curious if there's a connection. Thanks.

My DD is only 5, and hasn't been DX with ADD or ADHD, but has many of the symptoms. She started a constant and repetitive eye blinking about 8 months ago. We have taken her to her ped, a nero, and an eye specialist, and everything was normal. The nero said possible tourette's syndrome, but they can't DX that with only one tic. So for now that are just calling it a facial tic.

My son, who does not have ADHD either, also went through a period of eye blinking. He was 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 at the time. The teacher suggested ADHD but when we had testing done the psych said that he had excellent concentration skills and focus during testing. He also does not show signs of ADHD at home. The teacher ended up bringing in the school counselor and she decided that it was caused by stress. We took him to an opthamologist and everything was fine. It went away during the summer and hasn't come back. In his case, I think the eye blinking was caused by being in a stressful situation at school. He was only doing the blinking in the stressful environment.

ADHD meds comes with a risk of Tics. A friend who has a family history of Tics researched this quite a bit when trying to decide if to try ADHD meds with her son.

My DH has never been diagnosed with anything mentioned here, but he does tic when he gets stressed (throat-clearing, this thing with his shoulder/neck, etc.). Relaxing helps him to overcome these tics. He tics a LOT less now than he used to!

Just another thought: it may be anxiety-related. (But I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV...)

I believe there's supposed to be a strong comordity between tourettes and ADHD. I've been reading a lot about this lately.

Yes there is a connection. It's quite interesting actually. Facial tics, or other motor tics can be a response to medication for ADHD, however there are also times where children with ADHD have these tics even without medication (as there are others in the general population that have them without the ADHD diagnosis). So They don't always go together. The problem can be determining whether the tics are a result of the medication or not. Usually this can be determined by onset of the tics. It is definitely good to let the prescribing physician or psychiatrist know about the tics so that they could possibly look into other medications that may not cause them but will still be able to treat ADHD. If the tics are a response to the medication, then typically (although not always)after going off the medication they should go away within a few days.

just an anecdote, but Dsthen 8 had facial tics starting in 1st grade and getting worse by 2nd.

When we pulled him out of PS the tics vanished. And they haven't returned.

In HIS case they were undoubtedly due exclusively to stress. Prior to this resolution, however we had been considering Tourettes, ADHD and other "tranistory facial tics of childhood"

Interesting stuff, stress!

Yes, nero told us this. And said that ADHD meds can make it worse. He also said there are connections with ADHD, ODD, OCD, and tourettes.

We've got tics in our family. That's part of my username. Many, many kids have transient tics and they don't mean anything. They'll go away on their own and that's it. So, there are three levels like this:

1. Transient tics
2. Chronic Motor Tics or Chronic Vocal Tics (have to have been present for one year to diagnose)
3. Tourette (must have both motor and vocal tics for a long time; at this point the tics are kind of problematic, too, like cursing)

Many doctors don't prescribe stimulant meds for comorbid AD/HD and tics because many people find that stims worsen tics. There are other drug options.

I think that it would be a good idea to look up lists of tics and see if your kid has some other tics that are often not recognized. There are tics like uh-huh, throat clearing, sniffing, all manner of things. The doctors can read a lot into the specific tics to determine how severe the case is, so make as complete a list as possible of tics to present to the doctor and let them figure out whether a change in meds is indicated.

Tics and AD/HD do present together a lot and some people even think that they are one gene, together with OCD. The doctor knows this and should have ruled out tics when prescribing meds. If the doctor didn't see significant tics in the office, then the doctor thought stims would be fine. Or, the doctor may believe that stims don't cause tics. So, that's why it's up to you to put together that list and discuss your concern with your doc. HTH!