Coping with Tardive Dyskinesia

It is said that "knowledge is power," and this is particularly true when facing the challenges of managing a disease or medical disorder.

Tardive dyskinesia almost always results from the side effects of medications known as dopamine antagonists or inhibitors, which have only been around since the early 1950s. Tardive dyskinesia also affects patients treated for schizophrenia or gastrointestinal disorders, with about 30 percent of these patients developing symptoms.

As a result, there has not been a large amount of research conducted about tardive dyskinesia. Most of the materials that exist about the condition are either very technical or do not adequately cover the topic. Often, tardive dyskinesia will be limited to a single chapter or section in a medical textbook on movement disorders.

Books

One of the most useful publications with information about tardive dyskinesia may be The Official Patient's Sourcebook on Tardive Dyskinesia: A Revised and Updated Directory for the Internet Age (Icon Health Publications, 2002). This book (available in print and electronic format) is written for both patients and physicians who are seeking reliable information on tardive dyskinesia. The material is based on research that has been performed in the public sector as well as academia, and has been peer-reviewed. The Sourcebook is divided into three parts covering all aspects of tardive dyskinesia, including a guide to online resources and medical libraries, academic papers on tardive dyskinesia and patient's legal options.

Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications by Dr. Peter R. Breggin (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008) offers a summary of the effects of antipsychotic and mood-altering medications, why they are so frequently (and increasingly) prescribed, when such medications should be refused, and alternatives to these drugs.

Medicating Schizophrenia: A History by Joel T. Braslow (New York: Rutgers University Press, 1999) provides a detailed background about antipsychotic medications, their chemistry, development and history of use and side effects.

Scholarly Journal Publications

There are a fair number of articles on the topic of tardive dyskinesia that have been published since 1999 in professional journals such as the American Journal of Psychiatry, Neurology and others. Many include reports on tardive dyskinesia research and virtually all of them are written by scientists for the medical community. These articles can provide a starting point for discussions with a patient's doctor.

The Web site of Worldwide Education and Awareness for Movement Disorders (WEMOVE) maintains a listing of publications on the subject of tardive dyskinesia, most of which are no more than ten years old.

Finding articles about tardive dyskinesia in printed form can be difficult as these journals are not usually found in most public libraries. There are several electronic archives where articles can be accessed in electronic form including: High Beam Research, Project Muse, Wiley InterScience, and SpringerLink. Web sites maintained by the publications themselves, including the American Journal of Psychiatry and the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry's Web sites may also be helpful resources.