Tardive dyskinesia in a patient treated with quetiapine.

Rizos E, Douzenis A, Gournellis R, Christodoulou C, Lykouras LP.

Second Department of Psychiatry, University of Athens, Medical School, "Attikon" General Hospital, Greece.

Quetiapine is an atypical antipsychotic that is believed to have a low D2 binding affinity in striatal and extrastriatal regions. We report the case of a female patient with the diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder (using DSM-IV-TR criteria) who initially received amisulpride for 3 months, discontinued gradually because of persistent and distressing extra-pyramidal symptoms, and who developed tardive dyskinesia 3 months later after the initiation of quetiapine. A trial with ziprasidone resulted in a further worsening of tardive dyskinesia symptoms. A further trial with aripiprazole, improved her tardive dyskinesia symptoms. Although, it is under consideration the possibility that the improvement could have been due to the discontinuation of quetiapine, we conclude that aripiprazole improved the TD symptoms.

PMID: 19673087

World J Biol Psychiatry. 2009;10(1):54-7