Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale

Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (Barnes 1989): the objective, awareness, and distress items plus a 0-5 global clinical rating of drug-induced akathisia.

Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.

Example

Objective akathisia
2 — moderate/frequent
Subjective awareness of restlessness
2 — moderate/frequent
Subjective distress from restlessness
1 — mild/occasional
Global clinical rating
3 — moderate akathisia

Result: Barnes global rating 3/5: moderate akathisia (objective + subjective subtotal 5/9).

The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.

What the result means

Subtotals
objective restlessness, subjective awareness, and subjective distress each 0-3 (summed 0-9).
Global
the global clinical assessment: 0 absent, 1 questionable, 2 mild, 3 moderate, 4 marked, 5 severe akathisia.

What you enter

  • Objective akathisia (0-3)
  • Subjective awareness of restlessness (0-3)
  • Subjective distress from restlessness (0-3)
  • Global clinical rating (0-5)
How this is calculated

Barnes TRE. A rating scale for drug-induced akathisia. Br J Psychiatry. 1989;154:672-676. Read the source ↗

A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.

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Built by Clay Good. Source on GitHub.