Posted by ed_uk on July 22, 2005, at 13:49:21
In reply to Re: EXACTLY, posted by Mistermindmasta on July 22, 2005, at 0:12:17
Hello!
>Just want to point out that myself and several others agree that akasthisia is EXTREMELY underreported in the literature.
I agree. Antipsychotic-induced akathisia is very common. One would expect it to have received a massive amount of attention in the psychiatric literature but in reality it's received virtually none. It scares me to think how many doctors will have increased the dose of the antipsychotic in reponse to their patient becoming agitated due to undiagnosed akathisia. I would imagine that this is particularly common in patients who are unable to express how they are feeling eg. patients who've had a stroke, people with dementia, people who are paralysed etc.
>The restlessness was so incredibly horrible....
It's just awful, what can I say.
>Also, having never experiences such feelings, I had a hard time describing the way I was feeling.
The worst thing is that many doctors probably don't understand that antipsychotics can induce severe agitation. If I hadn't told the ER doctors that I was suffering from akathisia they wouldn't have made the correct diagnosis. They just didn't have a clue. Thank God they didn't give me a Haldol injection.
>Also, having never experiences such feelings, I had a hard time describing the way I was feeling.
It's very difficult to describe. You really have to experience it to know what it's like. The textbook descriptions of 'restless legs' are pathetic, they make it sound so trivial.
~ed
poster:ed_uk
thread:530027
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050718/msgs/531606.html