Side effect profiles of atypical antipsychotics, typical antipsychotics, or no psychotropic medications in persons with mental retardation

Antipsychotic medications have been used to treat a variety of behavioral a nd psychiatric disturbances in persons with mental retardation. Given the w ell-documented side effects of traditional antipsychotics, newer "atypical" antipsychotics have been well received in this population due to initial r eports of a more favorable side effect profile. We compared the side effect profiles of both the typical and atypical antipsychotics using a comprehen sive instrument, the Matson Evaluation of Drug Side Effects (MEDS) scale. P articipants taking atypical antipsychotics did not differ in overall side e ffects from a matched control group taking no psychotropic medication, and both groups showed significantly fewer overall side effects than participan ts taking typical antipsychotics. Subscales designed to measure involuntary movements (e.g., akathisia, tardive dyskinesia) detected differences betwe en participants taking either atypical or typical antipsychotics with respe ct to akathisia only. Implications of these findings and directions for fut ure research are discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.