Tardive Dyskinesia with Atypical versus Conventional Antipsychotic Medications
This chapter provides a summary of a landmark study on schizophrenia and specifically examines a common side effect of antipsychotic medications: tardive dyskinesia. How does the incidence of tardive dyskinesia compare among users of atypical and conventional antipsychotics? Starting with that question, it describes the basics of the study, including funding, study location, who was studied, how many patients, study design, study intervention, follow-up, endpoints, results, and criticism and limitations. The chapter briefly reviews other relevant studies and information, discusses implications, and concludes with a relevant clinical case. Take home points include that the incidence of tardive dyskinesia was lower in the study group taking atypical antipsychotics than the group taking conventional antipsychotics, but not as low as previous studies had indicated.