Tardive Dyskinesia

Definition

Tardive dyskinesia is a side effect often caused by long-term use of neuroleptic drugs, which are used to treat psychiatric disorders. It involves involuntary movements, especially in lower face muscles.

Analogy

Imagine if you had a glitchy software on your phone causing it to randomly open apps without you touching anything - that's similar to tardive dyskinesia but with muscle movements instead.

Related terms

Neuroleptics/Antipsychotics: These are medications used primarily to manage psychosis including delusions, hallucinations or disordered thought – they're like antivirus software trying to fix glitches in our brains.

Parkinson’s Disease: A disorder characterized by motor symptoms such as tremors or shaking hands; it's another example where our bodies have 'glitches', but this time it's due to a problem in the brain itself, not medication.

Dystonia: This is a movement disorder where your muscles contract involuntarily - think of it as another 'glitch' causing unwanted pop-ups on your phone.