Tardive Dyskinesia can be prevented but it still affects a lot of people around the world. Many doctors instead of stopping the disorder, continue the treatments that cause the patients to develop it. In order to keep it from afflicting you or someone you love, you need to know exactly what TD is and what causes it.
It's possible that you've never heard of this condition. The pharmaceutical companies strive the keep Tardive Dyskinesia a disorder that is not in the public awareness. The pharmaceutical company is failing to disclose the fact that some of their best-selling drugs are causing a problem. They include TD as a possible side effect on their information sheets, but only because the government has forced them to do so. Doctors are also aware of what these medications can do to patients, but they continue to prescribe them. This is a worst case scenario, innocent people caught in the Central.
Tardive Dyskinesia powers the brain which makes it sensitive to dopamine. The parts of the brain controlling movement are affected, leading to certain uncontrolled movements. Your facial features become distorted with TD. An individual having the affliction is likely to make funny facial gestures, stick out his tongue, purse his lips very often, and continueously appear to be gulping or munching something. The patient's limbs can also be affected with involuntary movements like shaking or jerking.
There are many different drugs that can cause this disorder in a patient. These neuroleptic drugs help treat psychoses and other gastrointestinal problems.
There are also some non-neuroleptic drugs which can result in Tardive Dyskinesia. These contains generally used drugs in the treatment of depression, such as Prozac, Zoloft, Tofranil, and Elavil.
Before taking any of these medications you must ask your doctor and make sure that he is prescribing the minimum required dosage for a minimum period of time. Long-term use of any of these drugs has been found to bring on the onset of TD. Once people develop the disorder, it may be with them for the rest of their lives, even if they stop taking the medication that caused it in the first place. Stopping may result in the condition going away, but it could also cause it to get worse.
