The British Journal of Psychiatry 149: 216-220 (1986)
© 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Orofacial dyskinesia, cognitive function and medication
P Thomas and R McGuire
The presence of tardive dyskinesia in a sample of 43 patients with
schizophrenia and 37 psychopaths who had been hospitalised for many years
and exposed to large amounts of medication was assessed while testing their
cognitive function. Subjects who showed no evidence of abnormal movements
performed significantly better on the test of delayed recall, but there
were no differences in performance on any of the other tests of cognitive
function used. Multiple regression analysis revealed that age and the total
lifetime dose of neuroleptic medication received (in chlorpromazine
equivalents) were the only variables to predict the Abnormal Involuntary
Movement Scale score, although a large amount of variance in this variable
was unaccounted for. The duration of treatment with neuroleptics did not
predict AIMS score.