ETHNICITY AND MOVEMENT-DISORDERS

This article is a review of studies involving ethnicity and spontaneou s as well as iatrogenic movement disorder. We have focused on Parkinso n's disease and tardive dyskinesia. Some early studies reported that A frican Americans had lower rates of Parkinson's disease than Causasian s, whereas more recent surveys have not;found such a difference. Sever al studies suggested that African Americans have a higher risk of deve loping tardive dyskinesia than Caucasians, even when differences in ne uroleptic drug use are accounted for. Asians seem to have a lower or e qual risk of developing tardive dyskinesia as compared with Caucasians . We discuss the possible contribution of ethnicity to the etiology of movement disorders and the implications thereof.