Drug-induced movement disorders have dramatically declined with the widespread use of second generation antipsychotics but remain important in clinical practice and for understanding antipsychotic pharmacology. The diagnosis and management of dystonia, parkinsonism, akathisia, catatonia, neuroleptic malignant syndrome and tardive dyskinesia are reviewed in relation to the decreased liability of the second generation antipsychotics contrasted with evidence from the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) Schizophrenia Trial. Data from the CATIE trial imply that advantages of second generation antipsychotics in significantly reducing extrapyramidal side effects compared with haloperidol may be diminished when compared with modest doses of lower-potency first generation drugs, that the dichotomy between first and second generation drugs may be oversimplified, and that antipsychotics could be conceptualized as a single drug class with a spectrum of risk for movement disorders depending upon receptor binding affinities and individual patient susceptibility.