Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Akathisia
/ˌækəˈθɪziə/noun
A distressing inner restlessness that drives constant movement, most often as a side effect of antipsychotic medication.
The Greek roots
ἀ-
a-
not, without
καθίζειν
kathízein
to sit down
Literally: “inability to sit”
The story of the word
The Czech neuropsychiatrist Ladislav Haškovec named it in 1901, half a century before the drugs that now cause most cases existed. The name records the only sign visible from outside, the patient who cannot stay in a chair, and undersells what patients describe, which is torment rather than fidgeting. καθίζειν is κατά plus a sitting verb, and the seat words καθέδρα and ἕδρα gave English cathedral and sanhedrin.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → medical coinage → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
cathedralsanhedrin
In a sentence
The akathisia started within a week of the dose increase and stopped when they cut it back.