Vitamin B6 in treatment of tardive dyskinesia: A preliminary case series study

Tardive dyskinesia (TD) remains a significant problem for patients and phys icians. Several reports have suggested that vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) can be helpful in the treatment of some neuroleptic-induced movement disorders, in cluding parkinsonism and TD. This report presents the results of a prelimin ary Study of five patients with TD who underwent a four week open-label cli nical trial of vitamin B6 (100 mg/d) in addition to their regular medicatio ns. The severity of the involuntary movements was assessed using the Abnorm al Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS), Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (BARS) and the Simpson-Angus Scale (SAS). The patients' clinical status was assess ed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). With the addition of vit amin B6 to their treatment, four patients had clinically significant (great er than 30%) improvement on the measures of involuntary movement and, in th ree cases, there was also clinically significant improvement on the BPRS. N one of the patients had side effects attributable to vitamin B6. The result s suggest that vitamin B6 may alleviate TD, but it will need to be further tested in controlled double-blind trials.