I’m thinking of asking my doctor about cogentin tomorrow. How much better is it at akathisia control that propranolol?
I don’t know, but I do know that propranolol was hit or miss for me, which seemed to indicate it wasn’t actually doing anything. The worst night of akathisia I had on Latuda, I had even taken 20mg of propranolol with it instead of the recommended 10mg, and I still wound up miserable as ■■■■.
Also not sure how relevant it is, but my pdoc told me in the appointment today that the only purpose of the propranolol was to figure out if what I was experiencing was really a side effect of the Latuda, and she concluded that because the propranolol wasn’t working, it really was a side effect of the Latuda and not just something else like anxiety. To me this implied that the propranolol was never meant to treat akathisia, but rather she was just trying to rule out other possibilities.
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I’m like you I’m getting tired of the restlessness but I can’t deal with buying new clothes every month either by getting fat on seroquel or risperdal. I google Iti-007 to see if new information comes out everyday.
Yeah I know that issue, too. I currently have just 2 outfits and don’t intend to hit the Salvation Army for new clothes until I am happy with a med. Then I can see where my weight balances out.
Don’t just rely on this new medication - what else can you do - start working on other strategies and actions that might help. Cogentin might be good - also, perhaps more exercise.
I tried going for a walk one night when I had that side effect, I was actually out to the gas station to buy cigarettes but felt way too agitated to be home, so I just kept walking for a while after I bought my pack. And unfortunately it had no effect on the feeling in my body, not even in my legs. It feels like it’s almost on a cellular level, like my individual cells were riled up and not my large muscles. I know that’s probably not how it literally works, but exercising my muscles just did nothing to “scratch the itch” so to speak.
However exercise in general is of course always good. Unfortunately just had no effect on this feeling, at least for me.
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I was prescribed benzos for anxiety and restlessness on abilify . But now I’m off them and using l-theanine.
L-theanine is expensive though. At least in the quantities I have to use (800mg a day). It’s costing me about $45/month. However, being off cigarettes and using an ecig pays for it.
I’d be either off abilify or on benzos if it wasn’t for that.
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Cogentin helped with muscle stiffness but not akathesia for me
i thought propranolol was for fine motor tremors . . . shaky hands and stuff. cogentin . … . it’s a big choice. i believe it more than triples the risk of tardive dyskinesia. maybe a little benedryll? ask about that.
i take latuda, but the recommended dos for inderal is not 10 or 20mg, its usually 120 for average akathesia, but 120 didn’t work for me cuz latuda has one of the worst cases of akathesia, so i took the maximum dosage allowed for akathesia which is 320mg which worked great as im writing this but my eyes still feel like they’re popping out just a bit but its tolerable, but when i combine it with two 0.5mg pills of cogentin then akathesia is gone completely, but thats because i take latuda at bedtime but sometimes i take it a little earlier due to bipolar so i get akathesia so for those of you who take it during the day, the maximum dosage of cogentin is 2mg three times daily