Tardive dyskinesia correlates inversely with polydipsia in chronic psychiatric patients

The present study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between ta rdive dyskinesia (TD) and polydipsia. The Abnormal Involuntary Movement Sca le (AIMS) and percent of maximum weight gain (PMWG)/week were simultaneousl y examined in 163 hospitalized patients receiving neuroleptic treatment. Pa tients with TD were less polydipsic than patients without TD. Moreover, the re was a weak but significant negative correlation between the AIMS total s cores and PMWG. The AIMS total scores were correlated significantly with ag e at onset of disease, whereas PMWG was negatively correlated with age at d isease onset. The present study is the first report to clarify the relation ship between TD and polydipsia utilizing continuous data of both TD and pol ydipsia. The biological bases of the difference between TD and polydipsia w ere discussed in term of supersensitivity of dopaminergic and noradrenergic neurons. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.