Treatment with perphenazine decanoate

Abstract

To investigate the feasibility of administering perphenazine decanoate (PD) at double the depot injection interval compared with perphenazine enanthate (PE), 32 patients with chronic psychosis on a stable PE maintenance treatment entered the study. The antipsychotic effect was assessed by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and adverse symptoms by using the Simpson & Angus rating scale. In addition, especially constructed scales for sedation and akathisia were used. Minimum and maximum serum levels of perphenazine were measured throughout the study. The results of this study indicate that it is feasible to substitute PD for PE provided that the patient is on a stable maintenance treatment with PE. No changes of clinical chemistry or body weight related to drug treatment were observed. No severe adverse symtoms were encountered, and in general both depot preparations were well tolerated. However, perphenazine decanoate (PD) seems to offer distinct advantages over perphenazine enanthate (PE) as depot maintenance treatment owing to lower incidence of side effects, enhanced clinical efficacy and because fewer injections are required to achieve the goals of therapy.

Key Words:

• Adverse reactions
• Depot preparations
• Perphenazine
• Serum levels
• Therapeutic effect