27 Nov 2013, 4:34 pm
Who has suffered from this? It's basically a drug reaction to, like, antidepressants or antipsychotics, where you have this terrible inner sense of torment, anxiety, and restlessness. You often feel a need to keep moving. Here's a website with info on it:
http://akathisiainfo.wordpress.com/2012 ... isia-info/
Here are my symptoms when I suffer from akathisia:
•Inability to sleep/insomnia
•Profound anxiety/terror/panic
•Feeling like you’re jumping out of your skin or want to rip your skin off and escape
•Dark, scary thoughts (definitely, which makes it even worse!)
•Psychotic-type behaviors
•Anger/aggression (I've not exhibited it, except perhaps on Prozac, but I've feared it)
•Self-harm (I've considered it, but not done it under akathisia, except perhaps on Prozac)
•Inability to sit still or lie down (I can usually lie down, but sitting is impossible, though this was not an issue on Prozac)
•Feeling like it will never end (oh yeah)
•Loss of appetite
For me, Ativan (which was given to me in the hospital) has helped. Klonopin (which I was prescribed in June after dealing with moderate akathisia) has also helped, but not always. Most reliable for me, though slowest to take effect, has been Benadryl, 50 mg at least. Most of the time 50 mg of Benadryl works, but sometimes I might need 75 mg, which always works. Of course, Benadryl always knocks me out. Benadryl also stopped the involuntary movements in the tongue and mouth and tremors I was having on Saphris. I've also been given gapapentin and propanolol for akathisia, but I don't know how effective they were. Of course, the best long-term solution is discontinuation of the offending medications.
Saphris (severe with involuntary movements in the tongue and mouth and tremors), Risperdal (severe), Abilify (moderate), and Latuda (no problem at first but severe after a month) are all drugs that have given me akathisia. Prozac might have given me a different kind of akathisia, but I have not confirmed this.
Zyprexa, even at the high dose I had as a teenager, has never given me akathisia, though it is heavily sedating for me (at least at first).
Mellaril, which I had in Kindergarten and first grade, is inconclusive because I don't remember if I had akathisia on it and my childhood records make no mention of it. (If I did, it might have been at least partly responsible for my behavioral disruptions I had in Kindergarten and first grade.) I had too low of a dose of Invega to know for certain, but that low dose did not give me akathisia.
One interesting thing I notice is that when the akathisia begins to lift, I don't really notice it at first. It is only after a while when I think, happily, Hey, the akathisia is gone!
What are your experiences?
27 Nov 2013, 5:11 pm
I avoid Pharmaceutical Meds for that very reason. 
Too many horror stories about side effects.
That reminds me of the X Files episode 'Drive,' where the guy has to keep going west, or his brains will explode out of his ears. Eventually he runs out of road when he gets to the coast. It doesn't end well. 
I have a friend who was taking Ambien and was awakened in the middle of a boulevard at 4 AM by a cop, after a motorist nearly ran her over and called 911, thinking she was dead.
She said she's gotten up many mornings to find her kitchen is a wreck and there's some inedible concoction in a Tupperware bowl in the fridge. Chocolate cake batter mixed with macaroni and cheese. Stuff like that.
27 Nov 2013, 8:57 pm
28 Nov 2013, 7:48 am
