Tardive Dyskinesia: Barriers to the Professional Recognition of an Iatrogenic Disease

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Abstract
Tardive dyskinesia (TD), once regarded by psychiatrists as a rare occurrence, is currently recognized as the most pervasive side effect (other than sedation of antipsychotic medication. Early reports linking antipsychotic drugs to TD met with considerable criticism. Mounting evidence concerning high prevalence of the disorder among psychiatric patients has led to a general acceptance of the syndrome as drug induced, but this recognition has coexisted with elements of resistance. This paper assesses the social epidemiology of TD, the process by which TD was generally recognized as a major iatrogenic illness, and coexisting resistance to such recognition. The resistance and incomplete recognition are then discussed in light of structural elements of professional dominance. The history of the TD phenomenon informs us that the discovery of illness is a broad sociomedical question rather than merely a biomedical one.