Vitamin B6 May Reduce Restless Legs in Patients Taking Antipsychotics
The atypical antipsychotic lurasidone (Latuda) is one of only a few drugs effective at treating bipolar depression. But 5–10% of patients who take lurasidone experience akathisia, or restless legs.
At a recent meeting, psychiatrist Cynthia Turner-Graham told this editor (Robert Post) of her success in treating a patient with lurasidone-related akathisia that had been resistant to all the standard treatments, including dose reduction, anticholinergic drugs, benzodiazepines, beta-blockers, etc. Vitamin B6 at a dose of 600mg twice a day gave the patient complete relief.
Dr. Turner-Graham was kind enough to direct me to a small double-blind study supporting this clinical observation in patients with schizophrenia who experienced akathisia from treatment with antipsychotics. The study by V. Lerner and colleagues was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2004.
