Tardive dyskinesia is a disorder involving abnormal movements that are involuntary on the lower face region. The main cause for getting this disorder is the long-term usage of metoclopramide (brand name Reglan). It causes involuntary tick like movements on the facial muscles and also on the fingers and limbs. The symptoms continue to exist even after the drug has been stopped. The term “tardive” means delayed and dyskinesia signifies abnormal movement. The patients who have been using antipsychotic medications for long have increased risk of getting this disorder.
Symptoms :
Some of the symptoms of tardive dyskinesia are uncontrollable sudden movements of muscles on the face. The affected child or adult will make constant movement of his mouth or jaw or tongue. They would move their jaw up and down as if they are chewing something. The tongue would suddenly protrude out and cause squirming movements. They would also make lip smacking movement and puffing of cheeks. In severe cases, involuntary movements of the tongue would go beyond 60 times in one minute.
For some patients, involuntary movements are seen on the limbs and fingers. They would also make foot tapping or blinking constantly without their control. All these movements are so pronounced that it makes them impossible to relax. This type of involuntary movement will not occur only when the person is sleeping. It may cause slight tremors in the hands and lower arms making them difficult to hold anything or write. This sort of sudden movements would make them more self conscious. Very often such movements would decline when the person is emotionally aroused and it increases when they are in relaxed state.
Tardive dyskinesia can cause sudden rapid eye movements which would give wrong impression about the patient to others. Rapid blinking of eyes can be severe in some cases inducing partial blindness. Oculogic crisis is one in which the eyes would roll inside the eye-balls in random manner causing disorientation. This disorder can intensely affect the walking style of the patient causing tardive gait making short stutter like steps, uncontrolled mechanism while sitting down, and difficulty in changing directions. All these signs of gait can be misunderstood for Parkinson’s syndrome.