Akathiesia
A feeling of muscle quivering, restlessness, and inability to sit still, sometimes a side effect of antipsychotic or antidepressant medication.
What a jumble we have to work through.
We have symptoms of Alzheimer’s which we try to manage with drugs that can have side effects that are typical in Alzheimers. The Seroquel has been steadily titrated up in an effort to manage the Alzheimer’s agitation and insomnia that we started with, but we think is now causing akathisia which is like full body restless leg syndrome. Well that would cause agitation? We added Xanax which really helps agitation but has a side effect of confusion which is a symptom of Alzheimer’s and the increased confusion causes agitation which is also caused by Alzheimer’s. Ok so we now titrate down the Seroquel and add kava kava and pramipexole to reduce the akathisia (if indeed it is cause he can’t tell me) and also the agitation that was caused by the Seroquel and or the Alzheimer’s as well as the insomnia that was the original issue and also aggravated the agitation. The kava kava and pramipexole cannot work properly until the Seroquel is out of his system which will take about 2 months to titrate down. Then we will know if it is working and if it agrees with his brain. The Alzheimer’s brain does not respond in the same way as a “normal” brain which is tricky to start with. Also we realize that at best we can manage symptoms but a fix is just not possible. #rollercoaster #alzheimerssucks