Do You Know What Is Tardive Dyskinesia!

Tardive dyskinesia or TD, one of the most disturbing side effects of antipsychotic medication is a movement disorder which occurs over a period of time in months, years or even decades. It is a difficult to treat and at times an incurable form of dyskinesia disorder leading to involuntary repetitive body movement.

In this form of dyskinesia, tardive is an involuntary movement meaning slow or belated onset, where the neurological disorder takes place which is a result of a long term or high dosage of antipsychotic drugs or in children and infants from usage of drugs for gastrointestinal disorder as side effects.

It is a group of side effects known as extrapyramidal symptoms which includes restlessness or akathesia, sudden painful muscle stiffness or dystonia, as well as Parkinsonism or tremors and slow down of body muscles. TD is considered as the most severe of these side effects which takes place after a long time of taking the antipsychotic drugs and is characterized by involuntary movement of different muscles within the body occurring in the tongue, jaw or lips, such as facial grimacing or movements of arms fingers, legs and toes.

In severe cases, it can also include swaying movements of the hips or affect muscles connecting with breathing. TD could also be embarrassing and based on its level of this ailment, the victim could also be disabled. The symptoms are the opposite of patients suffering from Parkinson disease and while Parkinson patient have a problem of moving, TD patients have difficulty in not moving.

Moreover irregularity in respiratory like difficulty in breathing and grunting is another symptom connected with tardive dyskinesia though research indicate that the prevalence rate is comparatively low. At times, TD is misdiagnosed as a mental ailment rather than a neurological disorder where the patients end up being treated with neuroleptic drugs resulting in severe disabling conditions which may even lead them to a shorter span of life.

Other neurological disorders closely related that have been recognized as variants of tardive dyskinesia are: tardive dystonia which is similar to the standard dystonia though permanent, tardive akathisaia which involves pain of inner tension combined with anxiety with a compulsive inclination to move the body while in other extreme cases, the victim undergoes much internal torture resulting in losing the ability to sit still.

Tardive myoclonus another rare disorder involves brief jerks of muscles in the face, trunk, neck and extremities. It is often essential to perform the abnormal involuntary movement scale (AIMS) examination, before and after the administration of the drugs, which helps in identifying the symptoms of tardive dyskinesia when psychotropic medication have been prescribed though the test does not tell if there is any presence or absence of this disorder. It only scales the level of symptoms derived from the action observed and helps to track the severity of this disorder.