FLUPHENAZINE IN PRIVATE PSYCHIATRIC PRACTICE

Fluphenazine (Prolixin) is a highly effective tranquilizing agent which may be administered with safety to non-hospitalized patients with a variety of psychiatric illnesses. The drug is especially helpful in facilitating psychotherapy. The almost universal relief of gastrointestinal distress in the patients treated with the drug, the absence of skin rash or photosensitivity or of observable hepatotoxicity, and the low incidence of akathisia made the drug especially useful. A very pleasant side effect reported by many patients was a sense of alertness which was beneficial in those who had been on large doses of chlorpromazine. Some were relieved from long-standing migraine headache or severe headache associated with the menses. In several others, severe allergic manifestations such as urticaria disappeared.