Maria G. Valdovinos, Celeste Roberts, & Craig H. Kennedy (2005). Functional analysis of tardive dyskinesia: Implications for assessment and treatment. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 38, 239-242.

We conducted an analogue functional analysis contrasting motor tasks with varying types of social consequences for movements associated with tardive dyskinesia (TD) in 2 men who had been diagnosed with developmental disabilities and TD. Our findings suggest that TD-related movements were not a function of social reinforcement contingencies. However, motor-activation tasks decreased TD-related movements, suggesting a possible novel intervention.

DESCRIPTORS: tardive dyskinesia, motor-activation tasks, functional analysis, developmental disabilities, mental retardation