Incidence of Tardive Dyskinesia in Early Stages of Low-Dose Treatment With Typical Neuroleptics in Older Patients

• Published in: The American journal of psychiatry 1999-02, Vol.156 (2), p.309-311
• Main Authors: Jeste, Dilip V., Lacro, Jonathan P., Palmer, Barton, Rockwell, Enid, Harris, M. Jackuelyn, Caligiuri, Michael P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Factors; Aged; Ambulatory Care; Antipsychotic Agents - administration & dosage; Antipsychotic Agents - adverse effects; Antipsychotic drugs; Biological and medical sciences; California - epidemiology; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drug Administration Schedule; Drug therapy; Drug toxicity and drugs side effects treatment; Dyskinesia, Drug-Induced - epidemiology; Dyskinesia, Drug-Induced - etiology; Factors; Female; Humans; Incidence; Male; Medical sciences; Mental Disorders - drug therapy; Mental Disorders - psychology; Middle Aged; Neurological disorders; Older people; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Psychiatric disorders; Psychiatry; Psychotic Disorders - drug therapy; Psychotic Disorders - psychology; Side effects; Tardive dyskinesia; Toxicity: nervous system and muscle
• ISSN: 0002-953X; 1535-7228
• DOI: 10.1176/ajp.156.2.309

OBJECTIVE: The authors studied the risk of tardive dyskinesia for older patients in the early stages of treatment with typical neuroleptics. METHOD: They examined the cumulative incidence of tardive dyskinesia 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after the institution of neuroleptic therapy among 307 psychiatric outpatients over age 45. The patients' median dose was 68.4 mg day of chlorpromazine equivalent. RESULTS: In the patients who had never received neuroleptics at baseline (N=87), the mean cumulative incidence of tardive dyskinesia was 3.4% and 5.9% at 1 and 3 months, respectively. There was no significant difference in the 12-month cumulative incidence of tardive dyskinesia among patients who had been neuroleptic-naive at baseline (22.3%) and the 89 patients who had received neuroleptics before baseline for 1-30 days (24.6%); however, the 131 patients who had received neuroleptics before baseline for more than 30 days tended to have a greater cumulative 12-month incidence of tardive dyskinesia (36.9%). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of tardive dyskinesia in older outpatients is high, even with relatively short treatment with low doses of conventional neuroleptics.