Flurazine
Cheaper & Alternative Brands
Same generic (Trifluoperazine), same form (Tablet)
Clinical Prescribing Information
Medical monograph and safety information for healthcare professionals & patients.Indications & Clinical Uses
Anxiety states
: Flurazine controls excessive anxiety, tension, and agitation seen in neuroses or associated with somatic conditions.
Nausea and vomiting
: The treatment or prevention of nausea and vomiting of various causes.
Psychotic disorders
: The management of psychotic disorders, such as acute or chronic catatonic, hebephrenic and paranoid schizophrenia; psychosis due to organic brain damage, toxic psychosis, and the manic phase of manic-depressive illness.
Dosage & Administration
Schizophrenia and other psychoses:
Adults and child over 12 years
: Recommended starting dose is 2-5 mg b.i.d, increased by 5 mg daily after 1 week then at interval of 3 days, according to response.
Children (6-12 years)
: Dosage should be adjusted to the weight of the child and severity of the symptoms. The starting dosage is 1 mg b.i.d. Dosage may be increased gradually until symptoms are controlled or until side effects become troublesome. While it is usually not necessary to exceed dosages of 15 mg daily.
Elderly
: Reduce initial dose by at least half
Short-term management of severe anxiety:
Adult and child over 12 years
: 1-2 mg b.i.d, increased if necessary to 6 mg daily.
Child (3-5 years)
: 1 mg daily
Child (6-12 years)
: Up to 4 mg daily in divided dose.
Elderly
: Reduce initial dose by at least half
Antiemetic:
Adult
: 2-4 mg daily in divided doses; max. 6 mg daily;
Child
3-5 years: up to 1 mg daily, 6-12 years up to 4 mg daily.
Contraindications
Do not use Trifluoperazine in comatose patients, or in those with existing blood dyscrasias or known liver damage, or in those hypersensitive to the active ingredient or related compounds.
Side Effects & Adverse Reactions
Common side effects are transient restlessness, dystonias or may resemble parkinsonism. Other CNS Reactions are drowsiness, dizziness, fatigue, blurred vision, seizures. Without these Peripheral oedema, blood dyscrasias, jaundice may occasionally occur. Tachycardia, constipation, urinary hesitancy and retention and hyperpyrexia have been reported very rarely.
Warnings & Precautions
Care should be taken when treating elderly patients, and initial dosage should be reduced. Such patients can be specially sensitive, particularly to extra pyramidal and hypotensive effects. Patients with cardiovascular disease including arrhythmias should also be treated with caution. Care should be taken in patients with angina pectoris.
Pharmacology & Mechanism of Action
Trifluoperazine is one of the phenothiazine class of compounds and as such has many pharmacodynamic effects which relate to its therapeutic actions and side effects. The most notable action of phenothiazines is antagonism at dopamine receptors in the CNS. It is hypothesised that this action in the limbic system and associated areas of cerebral cortex is the basis of the antipsychotic action of phenothiazines, whilst in the medullary chemoreceptor trigger zone it appears to be responsible for the antiemetic effect of these agents.