[Epidemiology of tardive dyskinesias in the Maghreb]

The most prescribed type of psychotropic medication in maghrebian psychiatry is neuroleptics. It is therefore legitimate to study the epidemiology of the most frequent side-effect of long-term treatment with neuroleptics: Tardive Dyskinesia (TD). At the moment, a collaborative study is under way on epidemiology of TD within the framework of the Maghrebian Association of Biological Psychiatry; several studies have also been conducted on this topic in the University Psychiatric Centre Ibn Rochd, Casablanca, Morocco in 1984, 1986 and 1987. For the maghrebian study, only preliminary results from Tunis will be presented. These studies have been interested in two epidemiological aspects: prevalence of TD in hospitalized and out-patients treated with neuroleptics; prevalence of TD-like movements among never treated schizophrenics. The assessment tool used for all the studies was the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS). Main results of these studies are: 1) General prevalence of TD and risk factors in neuroleptized patients: In Tunis, Douki and Benamor in their on-going study, found a general prevalence of 20.50% (N = 200 in patients). A multi-factor analysis showed that risk factors are (in decreasing order): female gender, age above 60, associated depression, total duration of neuroleptic treatment above 20 years, a frequently discontinued treatment, shock therapies in antecedents or associated, a diagnosis of non schizophrenic psychosis, haloperidol intake below 25 mg and fluphenazine depot above 100 mg daily. In Casablanca, in 1984, Chorfi found a general prevalence of 10% (N = 50 out-patients). In 1986, Bentounsi found a 14.50% prevalence in Casablanca (N = 400 out-patients) and 63.97% in the oldest psychiatric hospital in Morocco in Berreshid (N = 605 in-patients).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)