Tardive Dyskinesia: Its Relation to Neuroleptic and Antiparkinson Drugs

Abstract

Although accounts of neurological complications resulting from the use of neuroleptic drugs have consistently appeared in the psychiatric literature since the introduction of reserpine in the 1930's, serious concern about the permanence of these effects has been a rather recent development. As early as 1956, reports by Ey, Faure, and Rappard (10) and by Hall, Jackson, and Swain (13) called attention to the persistence of extrapyramidal symptoms several months after the cessation of extended chlorpromazine treatment. Emphasis on the persistence of dyskinetic symptoms after extended treatment subsequently appeared in reports by Broussolle and Rosier (2), Sigwald, Bouttier, and Courvoisier (20), and Ayd (1). In a survey of reversible and irreversible dyskinesia after treatment with reserpine, chlorpromazine, perphenazine and electroconvulsive therapy, Uhrbrand and Faurbye (22) noted the late appearance of the complication and termed it ‘tardive dyskinesia’.