Disclosure of tardive dyskinesia: effect of written policy on risk disclosure

Over half of the states in the country have written statutory and/or regulatory policies that require psychiatrists treating inpatients within the state mental health system to disclose risks associated with treatment to voluntarily admitted patients. A severe side effect associated with the long-term use of neuroleptic medication is tardive dyskinesia (TD). A nationwide study was conducted to investigate the effect of written risk disclosure policy on psychiatrists' self-reported disclosure of the risks associated with neuroleptics to individuals diagnosed as having schizophrenia of a chronic nature. Participating in the study were 520 psychiatrists from 94 state/county mental hospitals located in 35 states. Fifty-four percent of those psychiatrists reported that they typically disclosed TD to the target patient population. The study results did not support the hypothesis that the presence of statutory and regulatory policy on disclosure of risk results in psychiatrists typically disclosing TD to patients.