Does Tardive Dyskinesia Severity Impact the Effectiveness of Treatments?

In this occasional feature, members of the Psych Congress Steering Committee answer questions asked by audience members at Psych Congress meetings.

QUESTION: Are medications for tardive dyskinesia effective in mild, moderate, or severe cases?

ANSWER: I have very good news for you! But before I give you that news, please allow me to give you a little bit of background. Two medications have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia—those being Ingrezza (valbenazine) and Austedo (deutetrabenazine).

Both of these 2 drug development programs have at least 2 positive studies with patients with different levels of severity and duration of tardive dyskinesia. The good news is the following: both of these medications were effective in patients with all levels of severity. They were also effective in both male and female patients. Additionally, the duration of time that a patient had suffered from dyskinesia did not negatively impact the outcome.

I would therefore recommend you consider a trial of either one of these medications if a patient has tardive dyskinesia and is facing impairment in functioning.

— Psych Congress cochair Rakesh Jain, MD, MPH, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, Midland

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