Dramatic improvement of tardive dyskinesia movements by inline skating

Abstract

A 25-year-old woman with severe tardive dyskinesia (TD) due to neuroleptics had substantial improvement of movements while inline skating (video at Neurology.org). She received pallidal deep brain stimulation (DBS), and gait and inline skating were assessed before and after DBS; her twin sister served as a control (figures 1 and 2). Possible explanations for her improvement include (1) balance stability required by inline skating provides external cues that are less prominent during gait 1; and (2) dystonia consistently responds to geste antagoniste. 2 Since TD has variable response to treatments, we propose research into alleviating factors in TD that may advance treatment and rehabilitation in this incapacitating disorder.