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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Handwriting Analysis Indicates Spontaneous Dyskinesias in Neuroleptic Naïve Adolescents at High Risk for Psychosis
Published on: November 21, 2013
Tardive dyskinesia in children treated with atypical antipsychotic medications
Ikwunga Wonodi1, Gloria Reeves, Dana Carmichael
1Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21228, USA. iwonodi@mprc.umaryland.edu
Abstract:
Recent years have witnessed increased antipsychotic treatment of children despite limited long-term safety data in children. In this study, motor side effects associated with the use of antipsychotic drugs in children were examined in a sample of pediatric psychiatric patients. Child and adolescent psychiatric patients receiving antipsychotics (most were on atypicals) for 6 months or longer (n = 118) were compared with antipsychotic-naïve patients (n = 80) with similar age, sex ratio, and diagnoses. Only 19% of patients on antipsychotics had ever experienced psychotic symptoms. Eleven children (9%) on antipsychotics exhibited dyskinesia, when compared with 0 in the naïve group (P = 0.003, Fisher's exact test). Nine of 62 African-American children (15%) on antipsychotics exhibited dyskinesia, when compared with only 4% (2 of 52) of European-American children (P = 0.003, Fisher's exact test). Children treated with antipsychotic drugs might experience a significant risk of dyskinesia even when treated only with atypical antipsychotics. Ethnicity might also be a risk factor for dyskinesia in children. Side-effect profile of the atypical antipsychotic drugs in children may be much different than that in adults.
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