Prediction of neuroleptic-induced dystonia

George A. Keepers, Daniel E. Casey

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

57 Scopus citations

Abstract

For patients receiving neuroleptics, age, sex, neuroleptic potency, and dose all influence the likelihood of a dystonic reaction. Little is known, however, of the relative importance of these factors or of the feasibility of predicting dystonia in individual patients. We reviewed 135 charts of psychotic inpatients to examine these factors and their usefulness in predicting dystonia. Age, sex, neuroleptic type, dose, and occurrence of dystonia were recorded for the first 4 days of drug treatment and were used to construct a linear discriminant function that classified the cases as to whether dystonia was expected. Internal cross-validation was performed, and the error rate of this classification procedure was calculated. Fortynine (36%) of the patients had dystonia. A younger age was the most powerful predictor of dystonia. Male gender was second in predictive power with minor effects from neuroleptic dose and potency. The overall error rate (falsepositive and false-negative errors combined) of the discriminant function was 30%. These results suggest the possibility of predicting dystonia in individual patients but should be regarded with caution since the predictive procedure has not been tested prospectively. If confirmed, these data may allow treatment strategies that protect pa-tients from dystonia while sparing patients not at risk unnecessary treatment with antiparkinson agents.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)342-345
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of clinical psychopharmacology
Volume7
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1987

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Pharmacology (medical)

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