HLA antigens in tardive dyskinesia

Fifty-three male, Caucasian, neuroleptic-treated patients with chronic schizophrenia were examined for the presence of tardive dyskinesia (TD) and were tissue typed. The group with TD (n = 25) was compared to the group without TD (n = 28). HLA-DR4 was more prevalent in the group with TD than in the group without TD, with a relative risk of 3.04 for TD with HLA-DR4 present, although this finding is not statistically significant when corrected for the number of nonparametric comparisons. Other investigations reported an association between HLA-B44 and TD, or between HLA-B44 and neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism. Potential explanations relating the findings of these investigations are discussed.