Rabbit syndrome is a rare form of extrapyramidal side effect of antipsychotic drugs in which perioral tremors occur at a rate of 5 Hz. Rabbit syndrome is characterized by involuntary, fine, rhythmic motions of the mouth along a vertical plane, without involvement of the tongue. It is usually seen after years of pharmacotherapy, and is more prominent with high potency drugs like haloperidol, fluphenazine, and pimozide. There is also a low incidence with thioridazine, clozapine, olanzapine, aripiprazole, and low doses of risperidone.
Rabbit syndrome can be treated with anticholinergic drugs. It generally disappears within a few days of treatment but may re-emerge after anticholinergic treatment is stopped. Another treatment strategy is to switch the patient to an atypical antipsychotic with high anti-cholinergic properties.
Famous quotes containing the words rabbit and/or syndrome:
“The rabbit presses back her ears,
Turns back her liquid, anguished eyes
And crouches low; then with wild spring
Spurts from the terror of his oncoming;”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others—first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for it is supposed to be carried out as if women did not have needs of their own, as if one could serve others without simultaneously attending to one’s own interests and desires. Carried to its “perfection,” it produces the martyr syndrome or the smothering wife and mother.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)