Patients with Tourette syndrome or chronic tic disorder (CTD) are at increased risk of cervical spine disorders – both vascular and non-vascular, Swedish researchers report.

Their population-based study is the first to systematically investigate the association, they believe, although there have been anecdotal reports in the literature.

The team used the Swedish National Patient Register, searching records for all people born between 1973 and 2013 who were living in the country between 1997 and 2013.

They found 6791 people with a specialist’s diagnosis of Tourette syndrome or CTD (77% male) and matched each of them with 10 other people of the same age, sex and country of birth who did not have tics.