The treatment of muscle tics with dissimilar competing response practice.
Pick any simple competing response; matching the tic’s shape is optional.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three people with muscle tics practiced a competing response that looked nothing like the tic.
Each time a tic was about to start, they tightened a different muscle group for one minute.
The study used an A-B-A-B design to show the practice alone cut tic rates.
What they found
All three people had fewer tics when they used the dissimilar movement.
Later, adding a response that copied the tic gave no extra benefit.
The simple, unrelated movement was enough.
How this fits with other research
Funderburk et al. (1983) tested a pill for Tourette tics and saw no change. The new study got positive results, but it used a behavioral trick, not a drug. The two papers do not clash; they target different routes to tic control.
Paster et al. (2009) also blocked repetitive body movements in girls with Rett syndrome. Both teams used single-case designs and brief physical aids to cut the behavior, showing the same method works across diagnoses.
Nevin (1969) ran a summer-camp reversal study on toothbrushing. Like Matson et al. (1989), they showed clear experimental control by adding, removing, and adding the contingency again.
Why it matters
You can give clients any easy competing response; it does not need to mimic the tic. Pick a movement the learner can do anywhere without stigma, teach it in one session, and measure tic counts before and after to show control.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Prior research has shown that muscle tics can be suppressed by the performance of a competing response contingent on the occurrence of the muscle tics. In an effort to determine whether the topography of the competing response was important to the muscle tic suppressing effects of contingent competing response practice, we evaluated the effects of a competing response that was topographically dissimilar to the muscle tic. Three subjects engaged in dissimilar competing responses contingent on the occurrence of a muscle tic; 2 of these subjects subsequently engaged in similar competing response practice. The results showed a decrease in objective measures of muscle tic frequency with the introduction of dissimilar competing response practice for each subject; subsequent exposure to similar competing response practice for 2 subjects resulted in no additional decrement in the level of muscle tics. These results suggest that the topography of the competing response may not be crucial for the suppression of muscle tics. Discrepancies between the objective measures of muscle tics and self-recorded measures are noted and discussed.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1989 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1989.22-35