Tardive dystonia

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Abstract
Antipsychotic drugs can cause late-onset and persistent dystonia. This dystonia, tardive dystonia, is to be distinguished from acute dystonic reactions, which are transient, and from classic tardive dyskinesia, which is a choreic disorder that predominantly affects the oral region. Patients (42) with tardive dystonia are presented. The age of onset of dystonia was 13-60 yr. Symptoms began after 3 days to 11 yr of antipsychotic therapy. Younger patients tended to have more generalized dystonia. In a few patients, spontaneous remission occurred, but dystonia persisted for years in most. Therapy was rarely a complete success. The most frequently helpful medications were tetrabenazine (68% of patients improved) and anticholinergics (39% improved).