Introduction: Huntington's disease (HD)-associated chorea and tardive dyskinesia (TD) are hyperkinetic movement disorders that can have deleterious effects on patients' quality of life (QoL). Deutetrabenazine, a vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) inhibitor, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of HD-associated chorea and TD. It is structurally similar to tetrabenazine, an FDA-approved compound for treatment of chorea that is widely used off-label for treatment of TD, but has deuterium modifications that improve its pharmacokinetic profile.Areas covered: Herein, the authors cover the key clinical trials with deutetrabenazine in patients with HD-associated chorea (First-HD and ARC-HD) and in patients with TD (ARM-TD, AIM-TD, and RIM-TD).Expert opinion: Deutetrabenazine demonstrates consistent efficacy across patient types regardless of underlying psychiatric illness, or through use of dopamine-receptor antagonists (DRAs), which are the primary cause of TD. The safety profile of deutetrabenazine in clinical trials is similar to that of placebo. Long-term extension studies in both HD-associated chorea and TD show consistent efficacy and safety. Deutetrabenazine will likely be an integral part of the treatment strategy for HD-associated chorea and TD. Meanwhile, its potential to treat other hyperkinetic movement disorders is still under investigation.
Keywords: Antipsychotics; Huntington’s disease; VMAT2 inhibitor; deutetrabenazine; movement disorders; tardive dyskinesia; tetrabenazine; valbenazine.