Tardive dyskinesia is a movement disorder caused by long-term use of antipsychotic (neuroleptic) drugs, marked by involuntary, repetitive movements like facial grimacing and tongue thrusting. In AP Psychology, it shows up as a major side effect of biological treatment in Topic 8.9.
Tardive dyskinesia is what can happen when someone takes antipsychotic drugs for a long time. "Tardive" means late-appearing, and "dyskinesia" means abnormal movement. So you're looking at involuntary movements that creep up after months or years on the medication, usually in the lower face: lip smacking, tongue thrusting, grimacing, sometimes movements in the limbs too.
The drugs that cause it are neuroleptics (also called antipsychotics), which are used to treat psychotic symptoms like those in schizophrenia. These drugs work by blocking dopamine activity. Over time, that dopamine-blocking can throw off the brain's motor control system, and the result is movements the person can't stop. This makes tardive dyskinesia an iatrogenic condition, meaning it's caused by the treatment itself, not the original disorder.
This term lives in Topic 8.9, Treatment of Disorders from the Biological Perspective. It's the go-to example of a hard truth about drug therapy: medications that genuinely help can also do harm. Antipsychotics can calm hallucinations and delusions, but the trade-off is real side effects, and tardive dyskinesia is the classic one. Knowing it shows you understand that biological treatment isn't a clean fix. The whole biological perspective treats the brain as the target of treatment, and this term reminds you that fiddling with neurotransmitters (here, dopamine) has consequences across systems you didn't aim at.
Keep studying AP Psychology Unit 8
Neuroleptics / Antipsychotics (Unit 8)
Tardive dyskinesia is basically the price tag on long-term antipsychotic use. Antipsychotics block dopamine to reduce psychotic symptoms, and that same dopamine-blocking is what eventually disrupts motor control and produces the involuntary movements.
Parkinson's Disease (Unit 8)
Parkinson's involves too little dopamine, and antipsychotics block dopamine, so they can produce Parkinson-like motor symptoms. The connection helps you see that dopamine is doing double duty in the brain, running both reward/psychosis pathways and movement pathways.
Deep Brain Stimulation (Unit 8)
Both fall under biological treatment, but they sit at opposite ends. Deep brain stimulation is a targeted procedure used when drugs fall short, while tardive dyskinesia is an unwanted byproduct of the drug route. Together they show the range of biological interventions and their risks.
Expect this on multiple-choice questions as a side-effect identification problem. A typical stem describes someone who has taken antipsychotics for years and now shows involuntary facial grimacing or tongue movements, then asks what they likely have. The answer is tardive dyskinesia. Some questions push further and ask you to recognize it as an iatrogenic condition (caused by treatment) or to connect it to dopamine and motor control. No released FRQ has used this term verbatim, but it's solid evidence for any free-response prompt asking you to evaluate the costs and benefits of biological treatment.
Both involve drug-induced abnormal movements, but timing is the key. Acute effects like dystonia or Parkinson-like rigidity and tremors show up early in treatment, while tardive dyskinesia is late-appearing, developing after long-term use, and it can be harder to reverse.
Tardive dyskinesia is a late-appearing movement disorder caused by long-term use of antipsychotic (neuroleptic) drugs.
Its hallmark symptoms are involuntary movements of the lower face, like lip smacking, grimacing, and tongue thrusting.
It's iatrogenic, meaning the treatment itself, not the original psychiatric disorder, causes it.
Antipsychotics block dopamine, and disrupting dopamine over time damages motor control, which is what produces the movements.
On the exam, a multi-year history of antipsychotic use plus involuntary facial movements points to tardive dyskinesia.
It's an involuntary movement disorder caused by long-term use of antipsychotic drugs, usually showing up as facial grimacing, lip smacking, and tongue movements. In AP Psych it's the classic side-effect example in Topic 8.9, biological treatment of disorders.
By the medication. It's an iatrogenic condition, meaning the antipsychotic drugs used to treat schizophrenia cause it, not the disorder itself. That distinction is exactly what the harder MCQs test.
Timing. Early side effects like rigidity, tremors, or dystonia appear soon after starting the drug, while tardive dyskinesia is late-appearing and develops after months or years of use. "Tardive" literally means late.
Dopamine helps run the brain's motor control system, so when antipsychotics block dopamine to reduce psychotic symptoms, they also disrupt movement. That's why tardive dyskinesia and Parkinson-like symptoms can both come from these drugs.
No. Antipsychotics genuinely reduce hallucinations and delusions, but they carry real risks, and tardive dyskinesia is the main one. On the exam, use it to show you understand the cost-benefit trade-off of biological treatment.