BACKGROUND Research studies for the treatment of the putative prodromal phase of psychotic disorders have begun to appear. AIMS To obtain preliminary evidence of the short-term efficacy and safety of aripiprazole treatment in people with the psychosis prodrome. METHOD Fifteen participants meeting prodrome criteria (mean age 17.1 years, s.d.=5.5) enrolled in an open-label, single-site trial ...

We report about a clinical observation in a well-characterized group of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) during an experimental medicine study in which a single dose of amisulpride (a selective D₂/₃ antagonist) was administered. Almost half of the OCD patients, in particular those with less severe obsessive-compulsive symptoms, experienced acute akathisia in response to the ami...

Tardive dyskinesia (TD), characterized by oro-buccal-lingual stereotypy, can manifest in the form of akathisia, dystonia, tics, tremor, chorea, or as a combination of different types of abnormal movements. In addition to movement disorders (including involuntary vocalizations), patients with TD may have a variety of sensory symptoms, such as urge to move (as in akathisia), paresthesias, and pai...

Acute extrapyramidal syndromes (EPS), including dystonia, parkinsonism, and akathisia, are associated with the use of virtually all neuroleptic agents. They may be alleviated by reducing the neuroleptic dosage, switching to a lower-potency drug, or administering an adjunctive agent such as an anticholinergic, amantadine, benzodiazepine, or beta-blocker. Akathisia may be only partly dispelled by...

I report here an elderly woman receiving perphenazine together with terbinafine. After 1 week of terbinafine treatment she experienced extrapyramidal symptoms and, in particular, akathisia. Her symptoms did not disappear for 6 weeks, and so at 2 weeks prior to this most recent admission she had stopped taking terbinafine. However, these symptoms persisted for 3 weeks after discontinuing terbina...

BACKGROUND The effects of antipsychotic drug withdrawal have been inadequately studied. Case reports have described dyskinesia occurring in patients with several antipsychotics withdrawn, but studies on amisulpride withdrawal dyskinesia are lacking. CASE PRESENTATION A 63-year-old man, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 49, received amisulpride treatment since age 62. The dosage of a...

Akathisia is a common and distressing extrapyramidal side-effect, which usually results from the use of antipsychotic medication. Previous reviews and meta-analyses have demonstrated a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of treatment strategies, which are traditionally used against neuroleptic-induced akathisia (NIA), i.e. beta-blockers, anticholinergic agents and benzodiazepines. In the las...

Adverse drug reactions and interactions are among the major causes of death in the United States. Antidepressants have been reported as causing suicide and homicide and share the class attribute of frequently producing akathisia, a state of severe restlessness associated with thoughts of death and violence. Medical examiners can now identify some pharmacogenetic interactions that cause drugs, d...

OBJECTIVE Four types of antipsychotic-induced movement disorders: tardive dyskinesia (TD), parkinsonism, akathisia and tardive dystonia, subtypes of TD (orofacial and limb truncal dyskinesia), subtypes of parkinsonism (rest tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia), as well as a principal-factor of the movement disorders and their subtypes, were examined for association with variation in 10 candidate...