The Tic Service

We are a National Service specialising in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children and young people with tic disorders.

Our multidisciplinary team includes psychologists and psychiatrists and is headed by Dr Tara Murphy (Consultant Paediatric Neuropsychologist), Dr Sara Shavel-Jessop (Consultant Paediatric Neuropsychologist) and Dr Claire Eccles (Consultant Paediatric Neuropsychiatrist). We work closely with referring local teams to understand and offer joined up care to all seen in our service.

Tics are common neurodevelopmental symptoms which usually start in childhood. Tic disorders are used to describe a spectrum of movement disorders characterised by involuntary movements and sounds, which are referred to as tics. Although tics can be a prominent difficulty, often it is not the tics themselves that present as the main problem in the child’s life but rather co-occurring conditions which the child might experience, such as attention difficulties, anxiety problems or autism spectrum disorder. Therefore, in our service we consider additional problems alongside tics, to develop a comprehensive plan alongside local services to support the young person.

Our clinical service typically offers comprehensive mental health assessment and psychological tic intervention to patients with severe, complex and impairing difficulties. We provide recommendations to referring services on pharmacological management of tics as well as pharmacological and psychological management of associated mental health challenges.