Neuroleptic usage in a community mental handicap unit

Abstract

Increasing concern has been expressed in the psychiatric literature and general press about the use of neuroleptic medication for the treatment of behaviour disturbance in the mentally handicapped (Buck & Sprague, 1989). The issue was highlighted in a television documentary (Public Eye, BBC2, 1 May 1992) which reported a number of cases of tardive dyskinesia in mentally handicapped people who had been treated with neuroleptics. The programme, although taking a characteristically slanted view, will have made an impression on relatives, patients and the general public. It was also intimated that British families may be preparing to test the legal grounds for prescribing these drugs to the mentally handicapped, particularly where there is no formal psychiatric diagnosis.