Tardive Dyskinesia With Chorea-Ballism Improved by Valbenazine: A Case Report

Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is an involuntary muscle movement typically caused by prolonged exposure to antipsychotic medications. Depending on the symptom severity and the affected body parts, it can cause a terrible decline in patients' daily activities and life quality. TD often persists despite discontinuation of the offending drugs. There was no approved or effective agent to treat the patients until valbenazine, a vesicular monoamine transporter-2 inhibitor, became available. We report the case of a 64-year-old woman who started to take antipsychotics at the age of her late 20s for her schizophrenic symptoms and later developed left arm chorea-ballism in mid-50s. The patient's involuntary movements got progressively worse even after being freed from the medications and caused severe body weight loss due to difficulties in taking meals. Daily treatment with valbenazine gradually mitigated her symptoms, resulting in significant improvement in her feeding activities, body weight, and daily life quality. This is the first report, to our knowledge, describing the therapeutic potential of valbenazine to improve chorea-ballism associated with TD. Our observation highlights that valbenazine may relieve a broader spectrum of antipsychotic-induced involuntary movements.