Background: This study examines the links among diabetes, tardive dyskinesia (TD), and other extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) in schizophrenia outpatients treated with typical and atypical antipsychotics.

Objective: Using a retrospective chart review, we compared 30 schizophrenia patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) with 30 schizophrenia patients, matched for age and sex, with no DM. We compared prevalence and severity of parkinsonism, akathisia, TD, dystonia, and antipsychotic type (that is, typical vs atypical).

Results: We found no statistically significant differences between the DM group and the non-DM group prevalence and severity of EPS, including TD.

Conclusions: We did not find DM and TD association to be significant in the era of atypical antipsychotics, possibly because of their antidyskinetic effect.