Posted by LostBoyinNC45 on April 22, 2014, at 22:59:09
In reply to Zoloft + Akathisia? Not sure what's going on..., posted by scleme1 on April 21, 2014, at 10:32:59
I was formally diagnosed with SSRI induced akathisthia way back in 1998, in the very early days of my depression. I got it from the SSRI zoloft and also from paxil. I get it from all the SSRIs.
A bigshot Neuropsychiatrist from Duke dxed me with SSRI akathisthia and it is a formal part of my psychiatric records.
Here were the symptoms I would get:
Id take zoloft or paxil and it would be real bad for the first few weeks. It was a muscle thing heavily, but also an internal anxiety or agitation type feeling that was drug induced. It would cause me to move my legs around a lot while laying in bed or sitting in a chair, gave me the urge to walk a lot, made my muscles stiff feeling (especially legs), made me generally nervous feeling whereas before the SSRI my complaint was mainly severe fatigue and severe depression type symptoms.
For me, the akathisia would go away after a few weeks, after my system had adjusted to the dose of SSRI. If I increased the dose of SSRI later on, I'd get a new flareup of akathisia for a week or so and it would calm down.
Now in middle age, I know when my threshhold for SSRIs hits. My legs will get stiff while walking. If I decrease the SSRI dosage, the leg stiffness goes away completely.
When I was originally diagnosed with SSRI akathisia, I was told by the psychiatrist who diagnosed it to take 50 mg OTC benadryl daily. That the benadryl is a mild anti-cholinergic and helps to "smooth out" the SSRI akathisthia side effects. I found that to be true and benadryl did help a lot. Also, benzos like klonopin will help calm down akathisia.
the only anti-depressant I ever took that did not cause akathisia is Remeron. ZERO akathisia with Remeon. Also, rTMS did not ever cause any akathisia. The MAOI Parnate caused minimal akathisia but did cause an initial "activation" feeling for a few weeks that was stimulating and uncomfortable, but when my body adjusted it went away completely. Never got any need to move my legs or pace or move around on MAOI parnate.
Also, in my experience a lot of psychiatrists dont seem to have much experience or understanding of psychiatric drug induced movement disorders. Yeah, they can and will recognize full blown TD but Ive heard of many, many cases of akathisia that was misdiagnosed as a flareup of anxiety or panic or even a development of psychosis by poorly trained psychiatric social workers and psychologists. They just dont know psych drugs well.
Eric AKA "LostBoyinNC"
poster:LostBoyinNC45
thread:1064561
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140419/msgs/1064693.html