Cross diagnosis of AS and Tourettes?

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Anyone have a child (or an Aspie themselves) who also have a diagnosis of Tourettes? DS has a dx of AS, OCD, SID and ADHD.
AS being the primary dx. But I think they're missing something and some of the professionals in his life agree. We're going to a Tourette's clinic (the referral is being sent tomorrow) to either rule it out or add it to the list. The clinic has an incredible team so even if it doesn't fit, they'll know where to send us next. But there is something in him that we haven't figured out yet (it's long and involved so I'll spare you the babbling but my gut is screaming at me on this one) and it's stopping him from reaching his full potential. Hard to explain but anytime I haven't gone with my gut, I've regretted it.

Just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience. I know the comorbidity rate of AS/TS is pretty high.

Thanks.

I think AS, TS and OCD are commonly seen together - I think in one article it was referred to as a neurological cluster. I find your attitude of wanting to explore these issues refreshing. There seems to be some who want to simply label everything under AS and dismiss any other behaviors.

I know what you mean, and I think that's sad. My son can't function right now and it's up to my husband and I to help figure out what's missing so he can feel whole again. He's such a happy little guy (he's turning 8 soon) and tries so hard but I can see that there's something going on in his brain that he can't override. I can't sit back and just write it off. So we're off on a fact finding mission.

It would be interesting if he did come back with a Tourette's dx as well. My cousin's daughter also has TS.

My gut hasn't led me astray yet. When our DS was younger, I was so frustrated by the array of symptoms he had and the inability of any specialist to give me a single dx for even one of them.

Imagine their surprise when mommy sat down at google one day inputting the symptoms in pairs and figured it out in 30 minutes! And ASD's weren't even MENTIONED in the laundry list of things we were investigating (including palsies for his way of walking).

Keep us posted, and I wish you and your child the best in finding the right answer.

Or, is it environmental issues creating those secondary diagnoses? I'm not discounting the possibility, just expressing my own frustration that so many of these things are intertwined and dependent on so many external issues. It can be overwhelming to try and help our kids when we're not sure where to go first.

I just had a relative with complex neurological symptoms which a team of doctors couldn't work out during a one month hospital stay. The progression of the symptoms were so rapid, severe, and unusual that none of of us even bothered to research and it turned out had we done a search on any two primary symptoms Dr. Google would have sorted it out immediately. In this case it didn't matter because the disease is always fatal (Creutzfeldt Jakob) but it did teach us all a lesson on the importance of not just leaving it in the hands of specialists. Sigh...I thought I'd learned that by now....

My son has AS traits and his first cousin has Tourette's. Between the two of them they've pretty much have both symptom lists covered but there is some overlap.

Here's a site with a lot of info:
http://www.tourettesyndrome.net/index.htm

I had originally taken my son to the pediatric neurologist because I thought he had Tourrettes. He has many different tics. The dr. gave him the AS diagnosis along with Tic Disorder, Obsessive Disorder, and Displegia (toe walking). I think it is possible to have one along with the other. His dx confuses me, though, because isn't part of AS being obsessive. I'm not sure why it needs to be listed as a separate dx.

Now my son has been seeing an Autism specialist and he seems to feel that my has Autism, not Asperger's. He is basing this on the fact that my son had a speech delay and that even though he has obsessions, he is able to carry on a conversation without mentioning them.

With some behaviors it can be hard to tell, but generally the difference though is that obsessions and repetition in AS are comforting (like a desire for sameness) or an intense interest. OCD obsessions are anxiety driven - few people with OCD truly enjoy washing their hands until they bleed or have an intense interest in soap bubbles (lol). I think people can have both conditions and can learn which ones are motivated by different reasons. There was another article that said it may really be the same type of thing just expressed differently - http://autisticconjectureoftheday.blogs ... style.html - not sure about this idea but interesting to read.

I'm in my early twenties, and have AS, OCD, Tourette's, trichotillomania, sensory issues, supposedly social anxiety, past depression, and some ADD. i was told that the more things you have, the more likely you are to have more things, so i guess that's the way it is. It seems like what i do. Most people would never know there's anything "wrong" with me, just that i'm wierd and eccentric. I don't think you can tell much about a person from reading their labels. Someone with just one of the conditions I have may be more severely disabled than I am. I was diagnosed with everthing after the age of 17. Before that, if I had read that some person had this laundry list of labels i would think he or she was barely functional. anyway, i think being diagnosed with things helps you understand yourself better as well as differences in other people too.