Symptoms in TD Patients As a Symptom of Cognitive Dysfunction

Denial of Symptoms in TD Patients As a Symptom of Cognitive Dysfunction 

Clinical reports of denial or anosognosia among TD patients also confirm that they are suffering cognitive dysfunction and, in more severe cases, a dementing process. Anosognosia involves denial of impaired or 

Multiple publications confirm that most TD patients do not complain about their symptoms and will even refuse to admit their existence when confronted with them (Alexopoulos, 1979 Breggin, 1983b, 1993 Chard et al., as cited in Myslobodsky, 1993 DeVeaugh-Geiss, 1979 Smith et al., 1979 Wojcik et al., 1980). 

Patients with TD not only display indifference toward their symptoms, they sometimes confabulate about them. Smith et al. (1979) cited several studies showing that TD patients typically refuse to recognize their symptoms. They observed, 

We were so convinced that many patients were aware of their symptoms but unwilling to report them that toward the end of the project we started to ask patients at the completion of the examination if they noticed any abnormal movements in other patients. Several of the patients described the symptoms of tardive dyskinesia in other patients in great detail. Although it is conceivable that these patients might have been unaware of their own tongue or mouth movements, it is difficult to see how they could not have observed their own hand, feet, or leg movements. 

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