We are proud to rec­og­nize May 4–10, 2025, as Tar­dive Dysk­i­ne­sia (TD) Aware­ness Week to reduce stig­ma and empow­er those impact­ed by the con­di­tion. TD is an invol­un­tary move­ment dis­or­der that is char­ac­ter­ized by uncon­trol­lable move­ments of the face, tor­so, limbs and fin­gers or toes.1–4 The con­di­tion is asso­ci­at­ed with use of antipsy­chot­ic med­ica­tion that may be nec­es­sary to treat indi­vid­u­als liv­ing with men­tal ill­ness­es such as bipo­lar dis­or­der, major depres­sive dis­or­der, schiz­o­phre­nia and schizoaf­fec­tive disorder.3,5* TD is esti­mat­ed to affect at least 800,000 adults in the Unit­ed States.2,6 Of those liv­ing with TD, approx­i­mate­ly 60% remain undiagnosed.6

By declaring the first full week of May as TD Awareness Week, states around the country are helping to:

• Provide education and decrease stigma surrounding TD.
• Advocate for the need for routine screenings to help improve earlier recognition and diagnosis of TD.
• Empower the mental health community to discuss the impact of TD.
• Raise awareness of the availability of U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments for TD.

May is also Men­tal Health Aware­ness Month, an impor­tant time to acknowl­edge the one in five U.S.
adults liv­ing with a men­tal illness.7

Approx­i­mate­ly 813,000 adults in Ken­tucky are liv­ing with a men­tal ill­ness, and many peo­ple liv­ing with a men­tal ill­ness may also have TD.8 The abnor­mal, invol­un­tary and repet­i­tive move­ments of TD can neg­a­tive­ly impact peo­ple physically,
social­ly and emotionally.9 TD can affect one’s abil­i­ty to work, dri­ve, walk, but­ton a shirt or eat and drink.6

In a recent sur­vey, 57% of diag­nosed TD patients report­ed their social life was extreme­ly neg­a­tive­ly affect­ed, 51% report­ed that their men­tal health had been extreme­ly neg­a­tive­ly affect­ed and 45% stat­ed that TD extreme­ly neg­a­tive­ly affect­ed their abil­i­ty to per­form their job.†‡§ Peo­ple liv­ing with TD may also feel judged and ashamed, adding to a sense of wor­ry, iso­la­tion and stigma.1,9–12

Thank you for your com­mit­ment to ele­vat­ing the dis­cus­sion on TD to reduce stig­ma and empow­er those impact­ed by the con­di­tion. We encour­age every­one across Ken­tucky to acknowl­edge the first full week of May as TD Aware­ness Week. To learn more about men­tal ill­ness and TD, vis­it TalkAboutTD.com.

*Cer­tain pre­scrip­tion med­i­cines (meto­clo­pramide and prochlor­per­azine) used to treat gas­troin­testi­nal dis­or­ders may also cause
TD.13,14
†Tar­dive Dysk­i­ne­sia Patient ATU 2024 Wave 2. Tar­get patients (diag­nosed TD or sus­pect­ed TD), n = 175.
‡Results based on a sur­vey of 175 peo­ple with a con­firmed TD diag­no­sis (n = 75) or with sus­pect­ed TD (n = 100) who were asked to rate the effects of the con­di­tion on var­i­ous aspects of life. Results shown include the num­ber of respons­es among peo­ple with a
con­firmed TD diag­no­sis (n = 75) who rat­ed a 6 or 7 on the scale to indi­cate that the aspect of life is “extreme­ly neg­a­tive­ly affected”
by TD.
§Respons­es based on sur­vey ques­tion: “Since first expe­ri­enc­ing [CONDITION], how have the fol­low­ing areas of your life been
affect­ed, if at all?” Please select your rat­ing using a scale of 1 to 7 when 1 means “not at all affect­ed” and 7 means “extreme­ly
neg­a­tive­ly affect­ed.” Results shown include the num­ber of respons­es greater than or equal to 6 on the scale.

REFERENCES
1. Task Force on Tar­dive Dysk­i­ne­sia. Tar­dive Dysk­i­ne­sia: A Task Force Report of the Amer­i­can Psychiatric
Asso­ci­a­tion. Wash­ing­ton, DC: Amer­i­can Psy­chi­atric Asso­ci­a­tion; 1992.
2. Cloud LJ, Zut­shi D, Fac­tor SA. Tar­dive dysk­i­ne­sia: ther­a­peu­tic options for an increas­ing­ly common
dis­or­der. Neu­rother­a­peu­tics. 2014;11(1):166–176. doi:10.1007/s13311-013‑0222‑5
3. Amer­i­can Psy­chi­atric Asso­ci­a­tion. Diag­nos­tic and Sta­tis­ti­cal Man­u­al of Men­tal Dis­or­ders. 5th ed.
Amer­i­can Psy­chi­atric Asso­ci­a­tion; 2023.
4. Guy W. ECDEU Assess­ment Man­u­al for Psy­chophar­ma­col­o­gy. Rev. 1976. U.S. Dept. of Health,
Edu­ca­tion, and Wel­fare, Pub­lic Health Ser­vice, Alco­hol, Drug Abuse, and Men­tal Health Administration,
Nation­al Insti­tute of Men­tal Health, Psy­chophar­ma­col­o­gy Research Branch, Divi­sion of Extramural
Research Pro­grams; 1976.
5. Caroff SN, Hur­ford I, Lybrand J, Camp­bell EC. Move­ment dis­or­ders induced by antipsy­chot­ic drugs:
impli­ca­tions of the CATIE schiz­o­phre­nia tri­al. Neu­rol Clin. 2011;29(1):127–148.
doi:10.1016/j.ncl.2010.10.002
6. Data on file. Neu­ro­crine Bio­sciences, Inc.
7. Men­tal health by the num­bers. Nation­al Alliance for Men­tal Ill­ness. Updat­ed April 2023. Accessed
Jan­u­ary 10, 2025. https://www.nami.org/learnmore/mental-health-by-the-numbers
8. Rein­ert M, Fritze D, Nguyen T. The state of men­tal health in Amer­i­ca: 2024 edi­tion. Men­tal Health
Amer­i­ca. Accessed Jan­u­ary 10, 2025. https://mhanational.org/sites/default/files/2024-State-of-Mental-
Health-in-America-Report.pdf
9. Asch­er-Svanum H, Zhu B, Faries D, Peng X, Kinon BJ, Tohen M. Tar­dive dysk­i­ne­sia and the 3‑year
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2008;69(10):1580–1588. doi:10.4088/jcp.v69n1008
10. Boumans CE, de Mooij KJ, Koch PA, van’t Hof MA, Zit­man FG. Is the social accept­abil­i­ty of
psy­chi­atric patients decreased by oro­fa­cial dysk­i­ne­sia? Schiz­o­phr Bull. 1994;20(2):339–344.
doi:10.1093/schbul/20.2.339
11. Yas­sa R. Func­tion­al impair­ment in tar­dive dysk­i­ne­sia: med­ical and psy­choso­cial dimensions.
Acta Psy­chi­a­tr Scand. 1989;80(1):64–67. doi:10.1111/j.1600–0447.1989.tb01301.x
12. Cit­rome L. Clin­i­cal man­age­ment of tar­dive dysk­i­ne­sia: five steps to suc­cess. J Neu­rol Sci.
2017;383:199–204. doi:10.1016/j.jns.2017.11.019
13. Ken­ney C, Hunter C, David­son A, Jankovic J. Meto­clo­pramide, an increas­ing­ly rec­og­nized cause of
tar­dive dysk­i­ne­sia. J Clin Phar­ma­col. 2008;48(3):379–384. doi:10.1177/0091270007312258
14. Sanger GJ, Andrews PLR. A his­to­ry of drug dis­cov­ery for treat­ment of nau­sea and vom­it­ing and the
impli­ca­tions for future research. Front Phar­ma­col. 2018;9:913. doi:10.3389/fphar.2018.00913