Can Trifluoperazine Be Taken For A Long Duration?

Posted on Tue, 27 Jun 2017

Question: How safe is trifuoperazine in the long term? The net says it can cause irreversible eps, is it true? If yes, at what dose and after how long?

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (38 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Trifluperazine is known to result in Tardive Dyskinesia.

Detailed Answer:
Hello again,

I hope you are doing good. Trifluperazine is a first generation antipsychotic drug. The drug is commonly used by older psychiatrists. The drug was one of common drug for psychotic disorders but recently a lot of psychiatrists use this drug in severe intractable anxiety. This has been proved by a lot of studies and papers too.

But yes regular long term use is known to result in Tardive dyskinesia which is difficult to treat relatively irreversible EPS. If we go by definition of TD then after 3 months of regular use of an antipsychotic could increase risk of TD. Though this is not always true and a lot of patients are using this drug for long periods of time and they are doing good.

Still if you have any fear of TD then better to take the drug for short period and once you are better then the drug can be stopped.

Thanks and Take care

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (12 hours later)

is it dose dependent? the net says dose should not be more than 6 mg a day. i am taking 1 mg, may increase it to 2mg, does eps happen with 1 mg or 2 mg also or it happens with more than 6 mg a day? what is the definition of short term 1 month/2months/3months or more? if it happens with low dose i.e 1 mg or 2 mg, can something be added to it at that dose to avoid eps?

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (33 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
1-2 mg dose is low dose.

Detailed Answer:
Hello again

Yes its dose dependent. Higher doses produce more EPS and these doses in long term increase the risk of TD. No at 1-2 mg doses you will not suffer any side effects or EPS. No need to worry about that.

If typical antipsychotic drugs are given in high doses regularly for minimum three months then that increases the risk of Tardive Dyskinesia. Short term treatment is usually for 1-2 months. There are no specific guidelines for that. In clinical setting we use antipsychotics on patients regularly for even more than 6 months and they function normally without any adverse events.

Since you are on low doses so I don't think there is any need to add some drug like Baxol or Pacitane.

Thanks.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar