Time Is Ticking for TikTok Tics: A Retrospective Follow-Up Study in the Post-COVID-19 Isolation Era
Published in the open-access journal Brain and Behavior, this retrospective study by Kinga Tomczak, Michael Rich, and Boston Children's Hospital colleagues followed 56 adolescents, ages 10 to 18, who developed sudden tic-like movements and vocalizations during COVID-19 isolation — nicknamed 'TikTok tics' in media coverage because many patients had been heavy short-form-video viewers at onset. The sample was overwhelmingly female with very high rates of co-occurring anxiety and depression diagnoses. At follow-up, roughly four in five patients had improved regardless of treatment approach, including some who received no tic-specific therapy, leading the authors to describe these episodes as functionally different from classic tic disorders and more closely tied to underlying anxiety and stress than to video consumption itself. TechKids Foundation cites this as evidence that abrupt symptom clusters associated with heavy social-video use are complex and multi-factored, not a simple, isolated screen effect.
Retrospective chart-review sample of adolescents evaluated for sudden-onset, tic-like movements and vocalizations during the pandemic isolation period.
The large majority of the sample carried a formal anxiety diagnosis, and about seven in ten also carried a depression diagnosis, at the time of evaluation.
Roughly four in five patients showed symptom improvement by follow-up, a rate the authors report was similar whether or not patients received tic-specific interventions.
Tomczak, Kinga K., Jennifer Worhach, Michael Rich, Olivia Swearingen Ludolph, Susan Eppling, Georgios Sideridis, and Tamar C. Katz. "Time Is Ticking for TikTok Tics: A Retrospective Follow-Up Study in the Post-COVID-19 Isolation Era." Brain and Behavior 14, no. 3 (March 2024): e3451. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.3451