2. Suggestions for design of future studies.
Methods | Allocation: randomised, with sequence generation and concealment of allocation clearly described. Blindness: double, tested. Duration: 12 months beyond end of intervention at least. Raters: independent. |
Participants | People with antipsychotic‐induced tardive dyskinesia.* Age: any. Sex: both. History: any. N = 300.** |
Interventions | 1. Non‐antipsychotic catecholaminergic compound. N = 150. 2. Placebo: N = 150. |
Outcomes | Tardive dyskinesia: any clinically important improvement in TD, any improvement, deterioration.*** Adverse effects: no clinically significant extrapyramidal adverse effects ‐ any time period***, use of any antiparkinsonism drugs, other important adverse events. Leaving the study early. Service outcomes: admitted, number of admissions, length of hospitalisation, contacts with psychiatric services. Compliance with drugs. Economic evaluations: cost‐effectiveness, cost‐benefit. General state: relapse, frequency and intensity of minor and major exacerbations. Social confidence, social inclusion, social networks, or personalised quality of life: binary measure Distress among relatives: binary measure. Burden on family: binary measure. |
Notes | * This could be diagnosed by clinical decision. If funds were permitting all participants could be screened using operational criteria, otherwise a random sample should suffice. ** Size of study with sufficient power to highlight about a 10% difference between groups for primary outcome. *** Primary outcome. The same applies to the measure of primary outcome as for diagnosis. Not everyone may need to have operational criteria applied if clinical impression is proved to be accurate. |