Abstract

Haloperidol (Serenace - Searle) and trifluperidol (Triperidol - Janssen) are butyrophenones and so are related chemically to pethidine. We have already discussed the pharmacology of the butyrophenones used in combination with analgesics and in anaesthesia.¹ However, the group also has actions resembling those of the phenothiazines, such as chlorpromazine, in that they are anti-emetic, reduce or inhibit conditioned responses, tame wild animals and in larger doses induce catalepsy in experimental animals. They potentiate the effects of barbiturates and general anaesthetics, antagonise amphetamine toxicity and are reported to decrease the anticoagulant effect of phenindione.² They are neither analgesic nor antanalgesic, and, unlike some phenothiazines, have little adrenolytic, hypothermic, hypotensive or soporific effect.