Antipsychotic-related Movement Disorders (Nursing)

00:00 When you think about these extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), these are disorders that come because the person is taking antipsychotic medications.

00:14 You have tardive dyskinesia as well.

00:18 And so when we're thinking about them, we have this dystonia, which are spasms and contractions.

00:25 So you might see like people are talking to you, and all of a sudden, you see that they have some sort of spasm or contraction, and they don't have control over them.

00:37 These are Automatic Involuntary Movements, A-I-M-S (AIMS).

00:45 Akathisia or is restlessness and constant movement.

00:49 So one time, one of my patients explained to me that it felt like someone had taken a helium balloon and release the helium inside of his body.

01:01 And so it was like, it was a constantly feeling of movement inside of their body.

01:10 They may have a parkinsonism- rigidity in the way they move, or they may have that shuffling gait.

01:18 They may have Bradykinesia, or movements that are exceptionally slow.

01:24 And you kind of think that they're walking through water, the way they're moving.

01:29 And it's not that they're doing it on purpose.

01:32 These are Automatic Involuntary Movements (AIMS), keep it in your mind, you're not doing it on purpose.

01:43 Tremors, and sometimes you'll see it in the hands.

01:47 Sometimes you might see it in the whole arm, you might see it in the leg.

01:53 Sometimes you'll see it just in their jaw.

01:59 But you have to be watching your patients in order to be able to see some of these symptoms.

02:05 And then there's the tardive dyskinesia, the different types of movements that again, automatic and involuntary.

02:20 So these are uncontrollable irregular movements in my head affect the tongue or the face or the upper bodies.

02:28 It might be the hands, the arms or the legs.

02:31 And when we see tardive dyskinesia, it's already very late, we've missed the smaller symptoms, because remember, tardive dyskinesia can't be reversed.

02:44 They might have unintentional blinking, or like I was just showing you these tongue movements, like they're talking to you.

02:56 And then all of a sudden, they protrude a tongue.

02:59 It's not what they want to be doing, or they're talking to you and their eyes are blinking uncontrollably.

03:06 They also might have some difficulty speaking.

03:09 Now, if you consider the fact that already from the disease that they have, and the impact that disease has on their thoughts.

03:19 They're now having a body muscle impairment, that is furthering this inability to communicate with speech.

03:30 They also might not be able to understand the speech that they're hearing.

03:35 Of course, if they have tremors, and if they're having difficulty in movement, the idea of reading or writing becomes very, very difficult for them.

03:48 And think about eating, think about lifting a hot cup of coffee if your hands shake.

03:56 Think about trying to go out to dinner and cut some steak if you're unable to coordinate your movements.

04:04 Think about putting food in your mouth if you don't have control over where your tongue is going to go.

04:13 Putting food in your mouth and suddenly digging your tongue out.

04:19 It's really, tardive dyskinesia is really, it makes such a negative impact on a human beings life.