physical therapist
Physical therapy can help address these involuntary movements and improve your ability to move like you used to, she says.
Physical therapy typically begins with an assessment of functional capacity and a discussion of how tardive dyskinesia affects daily life, she says. Based on the assessment, your therapist can create an individualized treatment plan to address your specific needs.
For example, if tardive dyskinesia affects the legs, it may be difficult to walk, climb stairs, or maintain balance. “In those situations, they may be referred to us for gait retraining,” Leach says. Repetition and task practice may be used to address these issues, she says.
“We can also use various visual, auditory, verbal, and even tactile cues to increase awareness of these movement patterns and make them a little more typical or safe,” Leach says. Therapists can also wrap the limb in a bandage or sling to improve sensory input, she says, which helps focus attention on movement.
“Similarly, weight-bearing activities can help people with tardive dyskinesia increase sensory input from the limbs and try to retrain movement patterns,” Leach says.
“With tardive dyskinesia, you can’t move as much, so it may just make you feel worse overall,” she says. “A physical therapist can create an individualized plan to increase physical activity.”
