Diabetes is not a risk factor for tardive dyskinesia: a retrospective observational study

The aim of this observational study was to compare the prevalence of tardive dyskinesia (TD) in diabetic and non diabetic patients. We compared 34 diabetic patients with 34 non diabetic controls, matched by sex, age and time of admission, who had received a complete neuropsychiatric evaluation and who had been exposed to antidopaminergic treatment for at least 3 months. Among them, 8 of 24 diabetic (33.3%) and 6 of 15 (40.0%) non diabetic patients presented TD. The prevalence of TD in the diabetic group is numerically lower than in the controls but the difference is not statistically significant (chi(2) = 0.006; fd = 1; p = 0.937). These results suggest that diabetes is unlikely to play a major role in the pathogenesis of TD.