SCREENING ANTIPSYCHOTIC-INDUCED MOVEMENT DISORDERS

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  A NOVEL DIAGNOSTIC SCREENING PROCEDURE FOR ANTIPSYCHOTIC-INDUCED MOVEMENT DISORDERS

• IRAS ID

  137856

• Contact name

  Kailash Bhatia

• Contact email

  k.bhatia@ion.ucl.ac.uk

• Research summary

  Antipsychotic-induced movement disorders (AIMDs) may occur as acute or chronic manifestations following treatments with antipsychotics in 10%-30% of patients with psychosis. These disorders mainly comprise parkinsonism, tardive dyskinesia (TD) and akathisia, although the whole spectrum of involuntary movements may be observed. Delayed-onset (or tardive) AIMDs typically appear after many months or years of drug treatment, and often do not abate completely when the antipsychotics are stopped. Aside from the negative consequences of disabling and often distressing movements, AIMDs can stigmatise patients, have a negative impact on medication adherence, and confound the clinical assessment of illness symptoms.
  Despite their frequency and impact on quality of life, AIMDs are an underrated clinical problem which may be improved only in part through educational interventions directed to both health professional and patients. Currently available instruments to screen these side effects lack comprehensiveness, diagnostic utility and accuracy for subtype diagnosis.
  In this study, a Panel of experts (neurologists and psychiatrists) will develop new diagnostic confidence indices for the three main categories of AIMDs (i.e. TD and other involuntary movements; parkinsonism; akathisia), as well as a new and cost-effective diagnostic screening procedure to apply these diagnostic confidence indices in routine clinical practice. These new diagnostic instruments will be assessed and validated for use by mental health Specialist Nurses in routine clinical practice. Mental health Specialist Nurses will administer the test diagnostic screening procedure and calculate the scores of the new diagnostic confidence indices and the Clinical Research Assistant will administer the diagnostic reference standard procedure in a large validation sample (N=720-750) of patients with psychosis treated with antipsychotics. A smaller sample of patients (N=40) will be also videorecorded to allow us to assess reliability and feasibility of the new diagnostic confidence indices and of the diagnostic screening procedure.

• REC name

  London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/LO/0835

• Date of REC Opinion

  25 Jun 2014

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion