Tardive Dyskinesia and Informed Consent: Myths and Realities." American Academy of Psychiatry and LaH' Bulletin

Tardive dyskinesia is a potentially irreversible neurologic syndrome sec-ondary to long-term neuroleptic drug use. It is characterized by slow. rhythmical. automatic stereotyped movements particularly in the buccolin-gual masticatory area. extremities. and trunk muscles in patients who have received neuroleptic drugs for at least three months. Unlike other neurologic side effects to neuroleptic drugs, tardive dyskinesia is resistant to treatment with anticholinergic drugs. There is no generally effective treatment of tardive dyskinesia. I The prevalence of tardive dyskinesia varies widely in different studies but most likely is in the range of 10 to 20 percent of patients on maintenance neuroleptics. Of the total to to 20 percent of patients with tardive dys-kinesia, less than to percent of them have severe abnormal movements with a fourth to a third of patients with the disorder showing moderately severe movements. While early studies suggested as many as 60 percent of cases of tardive dyskinesia were irreversible, more recent studies are more opti