TABLE 1
Definitions and Descriptions of Different Types of Premonitory Urges
| Term | Definition | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sensory tic | Somatic sensation in the body, especially in bones, muscles, and joints, that leads the individual to perform voluntary movements to relieve the sensation. | Uncomfortable tactile, visceral, or musculoskeletal sensation that comes immediately before or accompanies the repetitive behavior. The individual is driven to repeat certain movements until he/she experiences a sense of relief. |
| Sensory phenomenon/premonitory experience | Uncomfortable physical sensations in skin, muscles, joints, and other parts of the body that may be accompanied by perceptual stimuli (visual, auditory, tactile). | Itchy, tense, or tight sensation with a specific anatomic location, which leads to the feeling of wanting to release the repetitive behavior. |
| Just-right experience | A force, triggered by visual, auditory, or tactile perceptions, as well as a feeling of imperfection about actions and intention, that leads to the individual performing compulsive acts until the actions are felt by the individual to be complete. | A need to feel that objects look a certain ‘just-right’ way; that objects and people sound a certain ‘just-right’ way; or that objects and people have to be touched in a certain ‘just-right’ way. |
| Urge | A drive or impulse to perform the repetitive behavior in the absence of any obsession, worry, fear, or bodily sensation. | A need to perform repetitive actions that is not preceded by obsessions or sensory phenomena. |
TABLE 2
Classification of Movements According to the Subjective Perception of Will
| Voluntary | Involuntary | Unvoluntary |
|---|---|---|
| An action is voluntary when it is consciously performed, is flexible, and can be controlled. The perceptual information is used to guide goal-oriented behavior. | An action is involuntary when it is automatically performed and is inflexible. It is usually faster than a voluntary action. It cannot be controlled, because it is mechanically triggered by specific perceptual stimuli. | An action is unvoluntary when it is perceived as a voluntary response to an uncontrolled and involuntary urge to move. |