'Co-morbidity' theory controversy in TS

• One of the principle issues requiring resolution in the field of TS, is the persistence of the 'comorbidity' theory
• The current trend is for 'alphabet soup' diagnoses to account for observed/reported TS symptomatology that lead to an 'acronymic' list of so-called 'coexisting conditions'
• 90% of individuals with TS are found to 'have' these co-morbidities
• Most co-morbidities are simply a product of arbitrarily selecting a group of symptoms or behaviours and labelling them as a disorder with no evidence produced to support the existence of those 'disorders' or a plausible mechanism to account for them (e.g. pathophysiology)
• If 90% of individuals with a disorder, such as TS, have a 'comorbidity' then it does not really qualify as a comorbidity but is an intrinsic part of a defining symptomatology
• If an overwhelming majority of TS cases consistently have a set of characteristic symptoms there is therefore little requirement to cite co-morbid causes