Movement disorder side effects of antipsychotic drugs

In its Worst Pills, Best Pills publication, Public Citizen's Health Research Group warns about the over-use of antipsychotic drugs in older adults, and about the increasing use of these drugs for purposes other than what they were intended: schizophrenia and other psychoses. Some doctors prescribe them to treat anxiety, depression, and other conditions.

While a little over 1% of people aged 18 to 44 have active schizophrenia, only .1% of people 65 and older have this condition. However, nursing home and elderly hospital patients are sometimes given these drugs for their sedative effect (more for the convenience of the staff than the needs of the patients).

While the drugs can be extremely beneficial for patients with psychoses, some patients (of all ages, but especially the elderly) using them experience a variety of severe side effects, including movement disorders that result in tremors in the face or body, such as "tardive dyskinesia," "tardive dystonia," "drug-induced Parkinsonism" and "akathisia." Akathisia is characterized by an uncontrollable restlessness that can cause the sufferer to take drastic or violent actions.

Tardive dyskinesia is "a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary uncontrollable movements especially of the mouth, tongue, trunk, and limbs and occurring especially as a side effect of prolonged use of antipsychotic drugs."  (Merriam Webster Medical Dictionary)

An analysis of AskaPatient reports of tremor-related side effects backs up Public Citizen's observations: the most likely kinds of drugs that result in tremor-related side effects are the antipsychotic drugs.

Click on the drug name below to read the experiences of patients who experienced tremor-related side effects for the drug.

* Reglan (METOCLOPRAMIDE HYDROCHLORIDE) has an FDA black box warning about risk of tardive dyskinesia.