I saw this letter at work the other day from a decade or more older issue of Sciene News and I had to copy it down for you all. It’s kinda cute in terms of our little pony.
“New report offers antipsychotic guidelines” (SN: 5/11/91, page 293) discusses the need for therapies to prevent or treat the tardive dyskinesia (TD) that can develop during anti-psychotic drug-treatment. But it makes no mention of the role for nutritional supplementation in the prevention and treatment of drug-induced TD.
The uncontrolled movements associated with TD may be a result of oxidative damage of certain neuroleptic and antipsychotic drugs at the nerve endings. In a crossover placebo study of 15 patients with TD who were given 1,200 IU of alpha-tocopherol (a known membrane antioxidant) for two weeks, the supplemented group experienced a 43-percent reduction in scores on an abnormal-involuntary-movement test. Control subjects’ scores did not change significantly.
Clinical studies have also shown that adding niacin (1,500 to 3,000 mg/day) and manganese (30 to 60 mg/day), combined with slightly above-physiologic levels of a zinc supplement, dramatically decreses or eliminates the development of TD. In one epidemiologic study of 58,000 patients receiving neuroleptic or anti-psychotic medication, virtually no cases of TD were found in the nearly 12,000 patients who had concomitantly received this nutrient therapy.
One would hope that the American Psychiatric Association task force would examine such apparently safe and effective alternatives for these patients.
-Alexander G. Schauss, Director and Research Psychologist, Life Sciences
Division, American Institute for Biosocial Research, Inc., Tacoma,
Washington.
I suffer from Yar’s overuse of “fhqwhgadshgnsdhjsdbksdabkfabkveybvf” … d’oh!