Mental Health Quick Akathisia cures?

[Trying2Iso]

Looking for quick and effective solutions to my severe akathisia i'm getting from my Saphris prescription
It's a living hell, an itching/tickling/neuropathic monster trickling down my spine and tormenting me from the inside out
I can't stop squirming and moving and pacing, even if i get tired, the sensation won't go away,
I have to actually STAND at my computer just to type this it's awful
fucking antipsychotics giving me worse symptoms than they treat, i'd rather have anything but this, but NOBODY seems to know what akathisia is!?!? so nobody has been able to help me

Btw I've tried telling my doctor and he prescribed me Cogentin, but it's a pill that takes an hour to start working and it is not very effective.

 

[flyhighk]

You have two options : 1- reduce (or stop) your antipsychotic dose, under the supervision of your doctor. 2- get something to treat it...
Have you tried increasing your cogentin dose? Or even getting a more potent anticholinergic?
If that doesn't work, try beta blockers...
And if they don't work either, benzodiazepines will probably work but tolerance and dependence can be an issue. So be careful.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

I found the akathesia (which is probably just restlessness, as the "alols" (propanolol, atenolol, etc)) to go away over time. It took sending me to the hospital and putting me on 10mg of artane, which is related to cogentin, to make the feeling go away, but it did go away. I stopped taking that much artane after two months and now experience little restlessness. I honestly can't believe it, but that's what happened. You may just have to increase your cogentin, but I would wager that it's probably temporary (if you're afraid of the cognition-reducing and mortalistic side effects of cogentin). Good luck.

 

[a dream]

If the side effects are worse than the symptoms treated, why are you still taking the drug? Surely there are other antipsychotics less likely to cause akathisia, if you need one. And surely there are other doctors, if yours won't change drugs...

 

[snakeclone]

I had some leg blowing up symptoms from risperidone when I was on it. I also had severe akathisia from 10mg of abilify. They might be connected, but either way, while I was on Resperidone, I took one tablet of vitamin B2 or riboflavin and it made the leg sensations subside. I used it with while I was taking clonazepam and it worked well to supplement the clonazepam when that medication was starting to wear off. Mind you, I metabolize my medication too fast so in your case you probably won't feel any benefit unless you take more than what I took.

 

[paranoid android]

If your getting bad akathisia from the anti-psychotic you are currently on you should ask your doctor if you can switch to another one. Akathisia can be quite serious and i have seen people panic like crazy from it.

As for what helps it benzodiazepines such as Valium, Temazepam, Clonazepam, etc work pretty well. Both Gabapentin and pregabalin seem to help with the RLS symptoms and abit with the overall restlessness. But this is just covering up the symptoms.

 

[Chatative]

My Akathisia started out as just tapping my foot & at it's worst, meant it was uncomfortable to sit still or lie still in my bed. However, the severe restlessness only lasted a month or so with me. In fact I went on to even higher doses of my medication & it was only the foot tapping & moving my feet in bed that remained. I just got used to it.

I've been off my medication for 8 months now but I'm still left with some Persistent Akathisia which amounts to moving my feet in bed at night. It's nowhere near as bad but it looks like I'm stuck with it for life.

I have read that taking a bath with some Magnesium Salts (before bed) is meant to help but I've not tried it to be honest.

It is ridiculous that mental health professionals are so hesitant to switch medication that is working well despite having fairly bad side effects. I chose to forego the medication that was meant to relieve these side-effects because I didn't want the potential for other side-effects!

I would consider changing medications. Also, bear in mind that depending on your circumstances, you do have the option to try going medication-free too. For myself, the side-effects from various Anti-Psychotics were worse than the illness...

Best of luck, I'm sure you'll find a solution just hang in there.

 

[paranoid android]

Generally the more sedating the anti-psychotic as in the more anti-cholinergic and anti-histaminic side effects and the less Dopamanine antagonism the less chance of getting akathisia. Hence why Quetiapine and Olanzapine tend to cause less Akathisia then say risperidone and it's metabolite Paliperidone (sold as Invega)which have very little anti-cholinergic or anti-Histaminic side effects but very strong D2 antanonism thus little to no sedation for most people. From what i hear from people aripiprazole seems to be worse then Quetiapine or Olanzapine in causing Akasthisia as well. Abilify is another anti-psychotic that tends not to be sedating for most and can actually be stimulating.

I personally prefer Olanzapine, Quetiapine or even Chlorpromazine (good ol Thorazine) to risperidone. I need that bit of sedating to elp calm me down abit and i have never had a problem with those anti-psychotics.

 

[SilverFeniks]

Oddly the reverse for me; two days of quitiapine were hell enough, I called it quits. Risperidone gives me no noticable side-effects (aside from unacceptable sedation at higher doses) but given the potential long-term effects I'm resistant to the whole genre.

Now seeing a new advert on TV for a new '-done' product (the name eludes me, I have the attention span of a manic racoon). More of the same no Doubt