Tardive Dyskinesia

Tardive dyskinesia is a medical condition in which the patient manifests involuntary repeated movements like blinking, rapid finger movement, lip biting, grimacing, leg movement, tongue sticking out quickly or any other movement of this type. Tardive dyskinesia is caused by prolonged exposure to neuroleptic drugs. These are the drugs most commonly used for treating psychological disorders and in some cases gastrointestinal medical conditions (metoclopramid is the best known drug in this category). The fact that these drugs are used to treat psychological disorders make tardive dyskinesia very hard to diagnose on some occasions, as the symptoms might be easily be confused and associated with the psychological disorders that these drugs are designed to cure.

Is There A Cure For Tardive Dyskinesia?

In some cases tardive dyskinesia is incurable. The most important step that can be done after discovering this condition is the stopping or if that’s not possible the reduction of the intake of neuroleptic drugs. There are some hopes though at the horizon as several drugs have been found to at least decrease the intensity of the symptoms. The therapy strategy is usually done at individual level in order to achieve maximum benefits. Given that prolonged exposure to the neuroleptic group of drugs might further damage the situation, it is very important that tardive dyskinesia is diagnosed and acted upon as soon as possible. Keep in mind that if someone takes these harmful drugs for a long enough period, they will almost certainly develop this condition. The figures stand as it follows: after the first year of neuroleptic drugs usage one twentieth of the patients develop this condition, after the second year another twentieth follows, after the third year a tenth joins the group and after the fourth 15% more of the patients follow. This means that after 4 years of use, a person has about one chance in three to develop this condition, and the counting keeps going up as there is no apparent stalling barrier.

The Challenges Surrounding Tardive Dyskinesia

To make things worse, there are cases of tardive dyskinesia that appear long after the treatment has been discontinued. This obviously makes the condition much harder to diagnose. The good news is that the newer drugs from the neuroleptic group available on the market, seem to have a lower risk of tardive dyskinesia attached to them. The best solution obviously would be to find alternative drugs to replace these altogether. Given the extensive experience gained in treating other people with chronic intoxications and through programs that aim specifically tardive dyskinesia, there are several candidates to improve the condition if not heal altogether of those affected by this illness. To this date though, there is no general cure with a decent success rate.

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