cogentin vs artane for akathisia

[Guest lara_watts]

if you develop akathisia from an antipsychotic and you try cogentin and it doesnt work will that mean if you try artane that wont work either? aren't they similar medications? i ask this coz im on an old school antipsychotic. main reason coz none of atypicals didnt work. yes ive tried clozapine and got horrible drooling from it. when i woke up in the morning my pillow my clothes my bedcovers would be convered in saliva! it was just awful. also put stacks of weight on it. didnt help with my schizophrenia. so my pdoc had no choice but to give me an old one which is called fluanxol(Depot injection every 2 weeks, i also live in australia). been on fluanxol for a month and it is working great! just one problem. i feel i have to keep on moving around. i dont actually do it. the feeling is mostly in my legs. its not that bad really. when i was on abilify it was 100 times worse! i keep fidgeting. when i stand up i cant stay still i sway from side to side. also when standing i take little steps backwards and forwards. and as i write this message my feet keep moving by itself. complained to my pdoc about this last week and he gave me cogentin 2mg at night. hasnt helped but i have noticed my mouth is really dry. my main question is about artane. i heard you can use it for EPS(akathisia, muscle stiffness, muscle spasms) from antipsychotics. is that true? is it similar to cogentin? is it worth trying?

[netsavy006]

You can try Artane. It may provide benefit where cogentin didn't. Another option is Amantadine, but you have to be careful with that one as it rases dopamine levels and the antipsychotics we take decrease dopamine so it's a fighting battle to get the dosages right with amantadine, but it can be done. Another alternative is propanalol, which is a beta blocker. Also, OTC, there's benadryl.

These are what I remember from my days of having akathisia but do let your doctor know of this problem. You have options. Wikipedia even suggests vitamin B6, but I've been told a safe level is no higher than 100mg daily.

I wish you luck and I hope you find the solution to your akathisia problem,

Andy...