Prevalence of spontaneous dyskinesia in schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic psychiatric patients

BACKGROUND: Although movement disorders have been noted among patients never exposed to neuroleptic medications, the specificity of spontaneous dyskinesia to schizophrenia has rarely been examined. METHOD: By abstracting detailed case records, we compared the prevalence of dyskinetic movements between 94 neuroleptic-naïve schizophrenic patients and 179 patients with other psychiatric disorders. RESULTS: Dyskinetic movements were more common among patients with schizophrenia than among those with all other diagnoses, and were most often noted in the body areas typically associated with tardive dyskinesia. CONCLUSIONS: Spontaneous dyskinesia appears to be relatively specific to schizophrenia and may be intrinsic to the pathophysiology of the disorder.