Clozapine in tardive dyskinesia: observations from human and animal model studies

Clozapine has long been considered a useful treatment in patients who have schizophrenia with the neuroleptic-induced delayed-onset side effect tardive dyskinesia. We present data in support of the clinical impression using both an animal model of the disorder and dyskinetic patients themselves. Clozapine produces a lower rate of oral dyskinesia in laboratory rats after 6 months of chronic treatment than does haloperidol (8.6 +/- 1.3 vs. 13.6 +/- 1.4 vacuous chewing movements every 5 minutes, respectively), suggesting a lower propensity to cause tardive dyskinesia. In the human, when clozapine was compared with haloperidol in the treatment of patients with tardive dyskinesia, clozapine produced significantly greater benefit for motor symptoms after 12 months of treatment than did haloperidol (p < .001). Moreover, the dyskinesia rebound, which occurred equally in both drug groups at the beginning of the study, was sustained in the haloperidol group but lost in the clozapine-treated patients. These data suggest that dyskinetic patients lose their symptoms of tardive dyskinesia, along with dopaminergic hypersensitivity, with long-term clozapine treatment.