| DOSE: |
100 mg |
oral |
Pharms - Ziprasidone |
(daily) |
| |
25 mg |
oral |
Diphenhydramine
|
(daily) |
I am bipolar, and my psychiatrist decided to put me on geodon, 100mg. So I get home and take it. About an hour later I felt extremely agitated and I could not stop moving. I tried to take a warm bath to calm down, sat in it for about 5 minutes and then I had a strong urge to leave. I would start smoking a cigarette, take a hit or two then put it out, and 10 minutes later I would do this again. I also repeated trying to calm down in the bath, only to have to leave it after a few minutes. So I decided to go to bed, which was difficult but eventually worked.
The next afternoon, I took all of my medication as I usually do and went to work. This turned out to be a mistake as, like the day before, the symptoms returned only this time about 100 times more intense and I had an overwhelming sense of doom. So I talked to my boss and managed to get a ride down to the emergency room.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity I finally saw the doctor. He recognized it immediately as akathisia and prescribed benadryl to be applied through an IV. I was nervous with this because I experimented when I was younger with this stuff and it was never a good experience, and even low dosages of benadryl make me uncomfortable, but at this point I was willing to try anything.
So after another eternity, the nurse finally comes in and gives it to me and BAM, it went away instantly. The relief was so great that it was almost orgasmic.
So now I am still on the geodon, but I take a 25mg benadryl everyday with no return of the akathisia.
