Association of tardive dyskinesia with increased frequency of eye movement disturbances in chronic schizophrenic patients

Abstract

The study of eye movement dysfunction in chronic schizophrenics by electronystagmography revealed a significant increase of saccadic dysmetria as well as saccadic intrusions in smooth pursuit in schizophrenic patients with tardive dyskinesia (TD) compared with those without TD and with healthy controls. The pattern of eye movement dysfunction in schizophrenia allows clear discrimination from patients with similar movement disorders due to Huntington's disease. Of several possible explanation's of the schizophrenic eye movement dysfunction the authors favour the hypothesis of a common pathogenetic link between TD and eye movement disorders in schizophrenia, consisting in an underlying dysfunction of regions involved in the regulation of involuntary attention such as the parietal cortex and striatolimbic structures of the right hemisphere. Recent literature supports the assumption of right hemispheric dysfunction in schizophrenia.