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Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of treatment and a composition used to prevent the development of the adverse manifestation of tardive dyskinesia in individuals suffering from mental illness such as schizophrenia and undergoing treatment with neuroleptic or antipsychotic agents. The experimentally-based rationale for the present invention indicates that conventional neuroleptic drugs induce tardive dyskinesia because they evoke a glutamate afflux whose excitotoxic action is unopposed by other properties of these drugs, including dopamine receptor blockade. The present invention provides effective drug therapies for schizophrenia comprising conventional neuroleptics or antipsychotic drugs given in combination with taurine, a taurine precursor such as hypotaurine, taurine derivatives, or compounds similar in action to taurine, to render benign tardive dyskinesia as an adverse effect. The combined administration of any of the conventional neuroleptics with taurine and the like offers the benefits of a safe and effective treatment that is generally affordable and vastly improves upon the limited, existing drug treatments which frequently exert crippling and long-lasting side effects unless drug is withdrawn.

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First Claim