Fact or Fiction? Test Your Knowledge on Assessment and Management Strategies in Tardive Dyskinesia

At any given time, roughly one-quarter of individuals taking antipsychotics experience TD, a condition characterized by involuntary movements of the face and body. Moreover, as the use of antipsychotics has expanded to disorders such as depression, behavioral disorders, and dementia, TD is no longer primarily limited to patients with schizophrenia. TD has an outsized impact on patients’ ability to carry out daily tasks and interact with others. However, because TD has long been considered an irreversible consequence of the use of antipsychotics or other dopamine receptor–blocking agents, many clinicians have come to view it with a sort of “therapeutic nihilism.” As a result, many patients have not received treatment for their TD. Recently, the US FDA approved 2 medications, both vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) inhibitors, to treat TD, giving patients access to the first well-tolerated oral treatments shown to be effective for this condition. To ensure that patients receive maximum benefit from this advance in TD treatment, clinicians must learn how to integrate VMAT2 inhibitors into their practice. In this activity, an expert faculty member will dispel common myths about TD, educating clinicians about how to recognize and diagnose TD promptly, how VMAT2 inhibitors work to improve TD symptoms, how the 2 approved agents differ, and how VMAT2 inhibitors can be used alongside other strategies to improve outcomes for patients with TD.

After completing this activity, the participant should be better able to:

*Demonstrate knowledge of the TD assessment and diagnosis process
*Use knowledge of the differences in VMAT2 inhibitors’ molecular structures to explain differences in their safety profiles and dosing
*Formulate a treatment plan tailored to the needs of a patient with TD