A systematic investigation of tardive dyskinesia in inpatients.

Although many scales to measure tardive dyskinesia have been developed, none has been widely accepted. The authors used the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS) to evaluate a group of 293 inpatients who had been given a primary or secondary diagnosis of schizophrenia. They found a tardive dyskinesia prevalence of 30% using a criterion rating of 3 (moderate symptoms) or more on the AIMS. The prevalence figure declined as the criterion became more severe. They also found that women had a much higher prevalence of the disorder only when more severe symptoms were used as the criterion. They conclude that the AIMS is a reliable instrument for assessing tardive dyskinesia.