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Fernando Espi Forcen. 1 Department of Psychiatry, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Karam Radwan. 2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
Alan Arauz. 3 Department of Psychiatry, Saint Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, New York, New York.
Jabeen Ali. 4 Private Practice, Chicago, Illinois.
Saba Syed. 5 Chicago Lakeshore Hospital, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
Matthew Brown. 6 Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Attending, Roger's Behavioral Health, Skokie, Illinois.
Daniel Yohanna. 2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
Kate Keenan. 2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
Address correspondence to: Fernando Espi Forcen, MD, PhD, University Transplant Program, Professional Building, Suite 151, 1725 W Harrison Street, Chicago, IL 60612, E-mail: [email protected]
Introduction
Akathisia is a neuropsychiatric syndrome characterized by a feeling of unease, an inner feeling of restlessness with a compulsion to move that involves mainly the legs but can also affect the arms or trunk. Objectively, akathisia presents with fidgetiness of the legs and sometimes the limbs, and complex repetitive motor movements such as swinging or crossing and uncrossing of legs and feet (Espi Forcen 2015).
In clinical settings, akathisia is generally seen as a side effect from medications, especially, antipsychotics are the most common causing this side effect followed by antiemetics and serotonergic reuptake inhibitors. Of all antipsychotics, first generation and some new antipsychotics such as aripiprazole and asenapine have been thought to have a higher risk for akathisia (Espi Forcen et al. 2015). In fact, akathisia has been reported as the most common side effect of aripiprazole long acting. (Kane et al. 2010).
The prevalence of drug-induced akathisia in children and adolescents has not been vigorously studied. Our objective is, therefore, to determine such prevalence in a pediatric population taking different psychotropics.
Methods
The Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale...