Non‐right‐handedness and maleness correlate with tardive dyskinesia among patients taking neuroleptics

Forty-eight consecutive psychiatric outpatients receiving neuroleptics were assessed for handedness and the presence of tardive dyskinesia (TD). Twenty-seven patients had TD and 21 did not. Twenty-one of the patients with TD had some degree of non-right-handedness compared with 3 of the patients without TD. These results were found to be statistically significant. Maleness also correlated with the presence of TD, but the results were less robustly significant. These findings indicate that non-right-handedness and maleness may correlate with the risk of developing TD. To the author's knowledge, these findings have not been previously reported.