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Until very recently, no medication was FDA-approved for tardive dyskinesia, although several, including tetrabenazine (a vesicular monoamine transporter 2 [VMAT2] inhibitor approved for treating hyperkinetic symptoms in Huntington disease), have been used off label. In an industry-sponsored, multisite, phase-3, double-blind trial, researchers randomized 234 patients with tardive dyskinesia (mean age, 56; men, 54%) to 6 weeks of valbenazine (a newly FDA-approved VMAT2 inhibitor) at 40 mg, valbenazine at 80 mg, or placebo.
Patients had stable schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or mood disorder; tardive dyskinesia had lasted at least 3 months. Exclusion criteria included medical instability and other prominent neurological disorders (e.g.…