Experts suspect about 750,000 American adults have tardive dyskinesia (TD), and it's thought that only 15% are treated.
Research on how to best treat the condition is ongoing. Let's take a look at what's new in the field.
More Widespread Screening
According to a 2025 survey conducted by The Harris Poll, 80% of people who live with TD wish they'd been screened for their symptoms earlier.
"It can be easy to go undiagnosed, especially if a patient has very subtle symptoms initially," says Tsao-Wei Liang, MD, director of the Movement Disorders Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. "Patients, their families, and even their doctors may not notice mild symptoms."
Since the movements are involuntary, some people don't even realize they're happening.
"Over time, things like grimacing, teeth grinding, or eye blinking may just become normalized," Liang says.
And many providers aren't aware of TD and that certain medications can cause it, such as antipsychotics. While older options like chlorpromazine or haloperidol pose the greatest risk, it can also happen with newer antipsychotics, such as aripiprazole or risperidone.
But as new drugs have emerged, there's been an increase in both patient and provider awareness, Liang says.
TD is often diagnosed through the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS). Doctors use a 12-point scale to look for abnormal movements in areas like your face, lips, jaw, and tongue as well as your arms and legs. They'll also look for signs of problems with your teeth and dentures, like tooth grinding.
It's recommended that people on antipsychotic medications get screened every six to 12 months, depending on which drug they're on. Some good news: These screenings are now more likely to be reimbursed by health insurance. Starting in January 2026, doctors who treat Medicare patients on antipsychotic medications will be reimbursed for TD screenings.
"The hope is if it's covered by insurance such as Medicare, patients will be monitored more carefully and ultimately diagnosed," says William Cote, senior director of the National Organization for Tardive Dyskinesia (NOTD) in New Port Richey, Florida.
VMAT2 Inhibitors
In 2017, the FDA approved two drugs specifically designed to treat TD: deutetrabenazine (Austedo) and valbenazine (Ingrezza). They belong to a class of drugs called VMAT2 inhibitors.
They block the VMAT2 protein, which helps lower the amount of dopamine in your brain to ease involuntary movements. A third VMAT2 inhibitor, tetrabenazine (Xenazine) is sometimes used off-label, meaning the FDA has not approved it to treat TD.
Almost 60% of people in a study for valbenazine were in remission – meaning they had few to no symptoms – after taking the drug for 48 weeks.
New Nondrug Treatments
Deep brain stimulation is occasionally used to treat people with TD, but it requires surgery to implant electrodes into your brain. Another less invasive, but promising, option is something called transcranial direct current stimulation. That's when a device with two electrodes is placed over your scalp to deliver a low-level electrical current to your brain.
One small study published in 2024 in the journal Clinical Neurophysiology looked at 64 hospitalized patients with schizophrenia who had symptoms of TD. Those who got 15 30-minute transcranial direct current stimulation treatments saw at least a 30% improvement in facial symptoms, compared to those who got a placebo (a sham treatment).
"It's an exciting possibility for patients with TD because it's low cost, safe, and easy to apply," Cote says. "But we need to see more research before we start to recommend it to people."
Breakthrough Antipsychotic Treatments
Xanomeline-trospium chloride (Cobenfy) was approved by the FDA to treat adults with schizophrenia in 2024. It works differently than other antipsychotic medications. While traditional antipsychotics block dopamine, Cobenfy targets muscarinic receptors. Those are brain proteins that indirectly impact dopamine. No cases of TD were reported during clinical trials.
"Since it avoids excessive dopamine suppression, there's much less risk of developing tardive dyskinesia," Liang says.
Similar drugs are being tested by other drug companies.
"It could usher in a new golden age of treatment for mental health conditions such as schizophrenia because these drugs appear to work well without the side effects of TD," Cote says.
Ginkgo Biloba
There is some promising research on the supplement ginkgo biloba as a treatment for TD, Liang says. People with schizophrenia and TD who took 240 milligrams a day for 12 weeks saw a significant drop in TD symptoms, compared to those who took a placebo, according to a 2024 study published in the journal Current Neuropharmacology.
"We really do need to see more research done, and larger studies, but it's intriguing because of how safe and widely available ginkgo biloba is," Liang says.
If you want to try it, be sure to talk to your entire care team, including your neurologist and psychiatrist, before starting. They'll let you know if it may interact with other medications.
The Importance of Shared Decision-Making
TD can be a difficult condition to treat because most people need the medications that cause it to manage their mental health. So stopping them typically isn't an option.
"The drugs that are available relieve symptoms but don't treat the underlying problem, which is the blockage of dopamine," Liang says.
That's why it's so important to discuss treatment with both your psychiatrist and your neurologist.
"If we can work with their psychiatrist to lower the dose or even try to switch them to another drug, we will do that," Liang says. "But that's not always possible."
Hopefully, as newer medications become available, there will be fewer cases of TD. But in the meantime, if you do take an antipsychotic medication, monitor yourself for symptoms, especially in your facial muscles, Liang says.
"The earlier it's diagnosed, and the sooner you start treatment, the better your prognosis," Liang says. "In some cases, we can reverse tardive dyskinesia entirely."
