A taxometric method for diagnosis of tardive dyskinesia.

A taxometric method for diagnosis of drug-induced tardive dyskinesia is described. The method, using items from the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS) as indicators of the syndrome, is applied in a sample of children diagnosed earlier as autistic and participating in an ongoing treatment program. The method includes procedures for estimation of the prevalence rate of the syndrome and the valid positive and false positive rates for each indicator of the syndrome and it includes tests (referred to as "consistency tests") for checking the internal validity or goodness-of-fit of the statistical model. The agreement of the taxometric classification with that obtained by using criteria suggested by Schooler and Kane was very good. In general, the results were encouraging enough to warrant further study of this kind of method for the detection and diagnosis of tardive dyskinesia.