Importance of Identifying, Treating, and Reassessing Tardive Dyskinesia Symptoms

Clinicians should screen for tardive dyskinesia (TD) and "assess the impact on the individual" if it is identified, says Rajeev Kumar, MD, FRCPC, medical director, Rocky Mountain Movement Disorders Center, Englewood, Colorado. He also suggests collaboration and that clinicians should not be afraid to ask for help from a colleague or movement disorders specialist if a patient does not respond to treatment.

In this video, Dr Kumar discusses these topics and other key takeaways from his recent session at the 2021 Psych Congress titled "Tardive dyskinesia across the complexity spectrum—from quality of life improvement to novel treatments."

Read the transcript:

Meagan Thistle:  What key takeaways do you hope attendees learn at your session? How can they go ahead and implement that into their clinical practice?

Dr. Rajeev Kumar:  From our session? I think attendees should recognize one. It's important to screen for tardive dyskinesia. It's an extremely common disorder, between 3% and 6% of indigenous per year develop tardive dyskinesia, we think there are more than half a million people in United States who have tardive dyskinesia. 

When you identify tardive dyskinesia assess the impact on the individual, even mild tardive dyskinesia can have a real impact on an individual and their patients have more severe tardive dyskinesia, who have lower functioning or a poor awareness. When you take the history from the patient, and their caregivers, it's not having such a big impact. 

By assessing impact, you can decide when and how aggressively to treat the individual. Once you identify that the patient has started decision impact, then treat with the evidence-based therapies. Most patients don't respond to any psychotic dose reduction or alteration. 

In general, if the patient is psychiatrically stable, treat the patient with a VMAT2 inhibitors and then if the patient is not responding, don't give up. Is the diagnosis correct? If it is correct, get help. If you're not sure the diagnosis correct, get help in the diagnosis from another psychiatric colic or movement disorders specialist. Thanks.

Meagan Thistle:  Thank you so much.

Dr. Kumar:  Thank you.

Rajeev Kumar, MD, FRCPC, is the medical director of the Rocky Mountain Movement Disorders Center and the HDSA Center of Excellence and NPF Care Center at the Colorado Neurological Institute. Dr Kumar is a movement disorders neurologist who attended medical school at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. He completed his residency at Mayo Clinic and fellowship at the University of Toronto.

Presentation(s):
Live - Tardive Dyskinesia Across the Complexity Spectrum – From Quality of Life Improvement to Novel Treatments