Tardive dyskinesia impacts patients and caregivers

Tardive dyskinesia (TD) poses a substantial burden for both caregivers and patients, according to a study published online Nov. 28 in the Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes.

Rakesh Jain, M.D., M.P.H., from the Texas Tech University School of Medicine-Permian Basin in Midland, and colleagues conducted an online survey to assess patient and caregiver burden of TD. The analysis included 162 unpaid caregivers for patients with diagnoses of TD and schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and/or major depressive disorder.

The researchers found that across physical, psychological, and social domains, most caregivers (82.7 percent) reported that TD had a severe impact on the cared-for patients, and 23.5 percent reported a severe impact of TD on their own lives. Impact on caregivers included experiencing activity impairment (46.4 percent), and among 136 employed caregivers, 49.5 percent experienced overall work impairment because of TD-related caregiving.

"As subjective caregiver burden is known to be a risk factor for anxiety in unpaid caregivers, these results highlight the importance of recognizing the incremental negative impact of TD on caregivers and may help health care providers develop assessment tools for holistic evaluation of the caregiver burden in TD," the authors write. "These results also demonstrate that TD imposes a substantial burden on caregivers' professional lives, which should be taken into account when considering the societal burden of TD."

Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Teva; Teva Branded Pharmaceutical Products R&D funded the study

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