1. The Side Effects of Your Treatment Outweigh the Benefits
Medications for TD can cause side effects like drowsiness, fatigue, depression, and parkinsonism (non-TD movements). If your side effects get too severe, you can talk to your provider about whether it’s worth continuing the treatment.
When side effects interfere with your daily life, that can mean the side effect burden outweighs the benefit, says Cheryl Hurd, MD, a psychiatrist and a professor at Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.
But that doesn’t mean you’re out of treatment options. “If one medication is not working, [it] doesn’t mean that none will work,” says Dr. Torres-Russotto.
Your provider may consider changing your VMAT2 inhibitor if you have side effects like extreme drowsiness or parkinsonism, which may not go away after adjusting the dose, says Robert Fekete,
