A disorder characterized by involuntary movements, especially involving the face, mouth, lips, and tongue. Can be caused by prolonged use of antipsychotic drugs, like chloropromazine

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University of Rochester

While the discovery of antipsychotic drugs helped with the treatment of schizophrenia, there were quite significant side effects.

- Dyskinesia
- Tardive Dyskinesia
- Supersensitivity psychosis
- Involuntary movements of the arms, legs, tongue and facial muscles, resulting in Parkinson’s-like tremors

Long-Term Effects of Antipsychotic Drugs

This list includes disorders or conditions that are related to autism or autistic states/features but are not currently directly or officially included in the DSM. These disorders include:

- Williams Syndrome
- Fragile X Syndrome
- Landau - Kleffner Syndrome
- Prader - Willi Syndrome
- Angelman Syndrome
- Rett Syndrome
- Tardive Dyskinesia


List of Other Recognized Autism Spectrum and Related Disorders

Ashwagandha's roots and leaves are thought to have nootropic and sedative effects, in addition to some animal studies showing promise for it as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease and tardive dyskinesia. However, its fruit has emetic properties and overconsumption of the plant may lead to gastrointestinal distress. Though mostly safe, it is not recommended for individuals who are pregnant or dealing with hyperthyroidism. 

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)

Breedlove, S. & Watson, N. (2017). Behavioral neuroscience, eighth edition. Oxford University Press.

Behavioral Neuroscience 8th Edition

Difficulty or distortion in voluntary movement

Dyskinesia

Tardive Dyskinesia

An exaggerated psychosis that emerges when there is a decrease in antipsychotic medication dosage that can be due to a consequence of up regulation of receptors that occured during drug treatment.

Supersensitivity Psychosis

A disorder characterized by fluent linguistic function but poor performance on standard IQ tests and great difficulty with spatial processing. This syndrome is caused by the absence of about 28 genes from one of the two chromosomes numbered 7.

Williams syndrome

Fragile X syndrome is perhaps the most common genetic form of intellectual disability. It results when the trinucleotide repeats (i.e., CGG repeats) in the long arm of the X chromosome number more than 200 repeats, as opposed to the normal 6-50 repeats. This extension of repeats leaves this region of DNA fragile, or prone to breakage. Specifically, the overexpansion causes methylation and transcriptional repression of the Fragile X Mental Retardation 1 gene (*FMR1*), which encodes an important RNA-binding protein that inhibits RNA translation into proteins known as fragile X retardation protein (FMRP). The condition affects 1 in 3600 males and 1 in 8000 females. The reason for this large discrepancy between incidences in biological sexes is due to the fact that genetic females have two X chromosomes rather than one X like genetic males do. Generally speaking, females have one normally functioning *FMR1* on the non-mutated chromosome in each cell, which allows their symptoms to be milder since the amount of abnormal *FMR1* is more variable than in males.

Fragile X Syndrome

Rett Syndrome is a rare X-linked disorder usually caused by spontaneous (de novo) mutations in the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (*MeCP2*) gene. It affects almost exclusively genetic females (1 in 10,000 females). This is because genetic males only have one X chromosome and therefore don’t have dosage compensation occurring, lessening the amount of the mutated gene circulating. Genetic males with the syndrome either die in utero or in infancy due to the severity of the mutation phenotype. For 6 - 18 months persons with Rett Syndrome experience normal development, hitting the usual developmental milestones, until said development suddenly stops and regression begins. There’s usually a mild improvement in some social skills at around age 5, but regression (mental and physical) will continue for the rest of the person’s life.


Rett Syndrome

A rare form of epilepsy that manifests through loss of language. It develops when the child is between 3-7 years old. It is twice as common in males than in females. Individuals generally lose their ability to comprehend first and then lose the ability to speak. 

Some autistic traits seen with this syndrome include aggression, poor eye contact, insistence on sameness, and sleep problems. 

The cause of LKS is not known but many suggest it could be a dysfunctional immune system, virus exposure, or brain trauma. 

Landau - Kleffner Syndrome

Initial symptoms manifest in the first year of life and become more visible during early childhood. 

It derives from a missing portion of chromosome 15 from the maternal side. 


Angelman Syndrome

Core features of this disorder:
- impulsive eating, which can lead to being overweight
- compact body build
- undeveloped sexual characteristics
- poor muscle tone

Some Behaviors common with Autism:
- delays in motor development
- learning disabilities
- feeding problems 
- sleep disturbances
- skin picking
- temper tantrums

People who have this disorder are missing a portion of chromosome 15 but unlike Angelman Syndrome, receive this from the paternal side. 

Prader - Willi Syndrome

- Alzheimer's disease is a progressive chronic disease. It's "a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behavior"; over time, these symptoms progressively interfere with daily tasks.
- It's the 6th leading cause of death. Current treatments can alleviate the symptoms but can't stop the progression of Alzheimer's.

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