Fluphenazine

Fluphenazine is a typical antipsychotic drug used for the treatment of psychoses such as schizophrenia and acute manic phases of bipolar depression. It belongs to the piperazine class of phenothiazines and is extremely potent; more potent than haloperidol and around fifty to seventy times the potency of chlorpromazine.

Pharmacokinetics
Fluphenazine has an incomplete oral bioavailability of 40% to 50% (due to extensive first pass metabolization in the liver). Its half life is 15 to 30 hours.

Side effects
Most common are extrapyramidal side effects, including tardive dyskinesia. The frequency and severity of extrapyramidal side effects are direct proportional to the dose given and the duration of treatment.

Other side effects (sedation, hypotension, anticholinergic effects like dry mouth, blurred vision etc.) also vary with the dose given.

As a member of the phenothiazine class of drugs, fluphenazine shares in general all side-effects of chlorpromazine. Sedative, allergic-toxic and anticholinergic/sympatholytic side effects are less likely to occur compared with chlorpromazine. The direct deposition of fluphenazine in the cornea and retina has so far not been reported.