Benzodiazepine - Tardive Dyskinesia Treatments

There is little disagreement that tardive dyskinesia is a difficult and disabling condition. This movement disorder causes involuntary movements of the face, jaw and tongue, and can even affect the limbs and digits.

Understandably, those afflicted with or affected by tardive dyskinesia are looking for ways to manage their symptoms, if not an outright cure. The most effective course of treatment is prevention – preferably by avoiding or removing the neuroleptic (anti-psychotic) medications that cause the condition. If for some reason this is not possible, the dosage of the medication should be taken as the bare minimum, or the patient switched to a different medication.

Symptoms of tardive dyskinesia can develop almost immediately with some medications, but usually take several months or years to appear. Once these symptoms are apparent, they are usually irreversible, although this varies from one individual to another. Currently, there is no cure for tardive dyskinesia and some of the treatments that have been tried are even worse than the disease. Benzodiazepine is one medication that has received this kind of attention.

History of Benzodiazepine

By the 1980s, it had become obvious that drugs containing benzodiazepine were highly addictive – something that pharmaceutical corporations were well aware of, leading to the largest class-action lawsuit in the history of the British legal system.

Benzodiazepine drugs are highly effective at preventing convulsions such as are suffered by epileptics. They have also been used for patients with mental disorders and anxiety disorders. Because of these indications, it was thought that the drug might possibly make an effective treatment for tardive dyskinesia.

Because tardive dyskinesia is not a profitable disease for drug companies (it affects few patients), little research has been done as to how to effectively treat or manage its symptoms. However, there is a single study on benzodiazepine, which was first published in 1996 and as of 2006, was assessed as still representing the most current information.

Conducted in York, U.K., this research study focused on people being treated for schizophrenia with neuroleptic medications and had symptoms of tardive dyskinesia. Some of these patients were administered a benzodiazepine drug, while others were given a placebo. Based on their results, the researchers concluded that treatment with "benzo" drugs made little difference when it came to tardive dyskinesia symptoms.

Given the highly habit-forming characteristics of drugs containing benzodiazepines and its lack of effectiveness as indicated by the aforementioned study, tardive dyskinesia patients should avoid these medications.

Free information packet on Tardive Dyskinesia

Name

Address

City, State, Zip

Diagnosis

Prescribed Drug

Phone Number

Comments