Nervousness, inability to remain still for a long time. Intense need to always be on the move. Discomfort and feeling dizzy. Contrary to popular belief, acatisia is not related to restless legs syndrome; in fact, acatisia is a syndrome caused by the side effect of several specific (and often prescribed) medications.
People are often forced to take certain medications and tend to ignore their side effects, as a result, many of them experience a specific symptom, leading them to see their doctor, only to discover that it is a side effect of a drug they are taking.
- As you can imagine.
- The confusing symptoms caused by medications are related to all kinds of diseases.
- Including acatisia.
- It is an undesirable.
- Uncomfortable and disabling event that is misdiagnosed as restless legs syndrome.
- This confusion is so common that often the person ends up receiving treatment for this neurological disorder when they don’t need it.
Of course, this treatment makes no difference, so it is important to always consider more factors, more origins that trigger this uncontrollable need to move.
Acatisia is a movement disorder that prevents the person from standing still, a situation much more intense and problematic than restless legs syndrome, the reason is that the need to move not only concentrates on the lower extremities, but affects the whole body. As you can imagine, not being able to stop moving can be nerve-wringing.
Thus, this condition occurs with psychological symptoms, since physical rest adds to emotional agitation, for example, the person is anxious not to be able to stand still and adopt an adequate posture to work, drive or sleep, in addition, this disorder affects people. of all ages; it all depends on the effect of certain medications on the body.
There are cases of patients who, when treated to alleviate something as simple as dizziness and vomiting, experience totally surreal situations, ranging from spending all day patting on surfaces to finishing. when arguing with the family or losing their jobs because they can’t concentrate or stand still without moving.
The area responsible for the study of this type of alteration is neurology, although it is true that it is quite common to confuse this disorder with restless legs syndrome, we have already pointed out that the symptoms of acatisia are much broader. common characteristics of this condition:
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, the etiology of this movement disorder is the side effect of some medications, the origin of which is almost always in treatments with antipsychotic drugs and also with antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
In addition, many patients have acatisia due to medicines to treat vomiting and dizziness; In addition, it is common for patients with Parkinson’s disease to appear acatisis as a result of the dopaminergic treatment itself; However, it should be noted that this side effect does. they don’t appear in all patients.
These manifestations usually occur when the doses of the drug administered are high. This condition is common in people taking first-generation antipsychotics, such as haloperidol, and second-generation antipsychotics, such as risperidone.
In general, when a patient is being treated with psychotropic medications, the doctor already feels that these symptoms may be the effects of medications; However, sometimes the patient may experience adverse reactions to conventional antidepressants or even dizziness tablets and may not know, at first glance, what their origin may be.
The diagnostic criteria that doctors follow to determine the presence or absence of acatisia are:
Unlike restless legs syndrome, acathisia has a good prognosis, so reducing the dose of the drug or stopping its use is usually sufficient; However, the problem is that some patients need to continue their treatment with high doses of antipsychotics.
In this situation, the doctor should evaluate the possibility of proposing another drug with similar properties, so try different options until you find the one that best suits the needs of the patient.
In conclusion, knowing this type of disorder and alteration leads us to the obvious, often a person’s well-being and health depend on medication, however nothing is as dangerous as self-medication. It is essential to always have good medical attention and not ignore the occurrence of possible side effects.