US Brand Name: Thorazine

Other Brand Names:

Ampliactil (Argentina)
Aspersinal (Argentina)
Chlomazine (Japan)
Chloractil (United Kingdom)
Chlorazin (Bulgaria; Switzerland)
Chlorpromanyl (Canada)
Chlorpromed (Thailand)
Clonazine (Ireland)
Contomin (Japan)
Duncan (Thailand)
Esmino (Japan)
Hibernal (Hungary; Sweden)
Klorproman (Czech Republic; Finland)
Klorpromazin (Finland)
Laractyl (Philippines)
Largactil (Australia; Bahamas; Bahrain; Barbados; Belize; Benin; Bermuda; Burkina Faso; Canada; Costa Rica; Curacao; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Egypt; El Salvador; Ethiopia; Finland; France; Gambia; Ghana; Greece; Guatemala; Guinea; Guyana; Honduras; Hong Kong; Indonesia; Iraq; Italy; Ivory Coast; Jamaica; Kenya; Kuwait; Lebanon; Liberia; Libya; Lebanon; Malawi; Mali; Mauritania; Mauritius; Morocco; Dutch Antilles; Netherlands; New Zealand; Niger; Nigeria; Norway; Oman;  Panama; Peru; Portugal; Qatar;  Republic of Yemen; Saudi Arabia;  Senegal; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; South Africa; Spain; Sudan; Surinam; Switzerland; Syria;  Tanzania; Trinidad; Tunisia; Uganda; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; Zambia; Zimbabwe)
Largactil Forte (New Zealand)
Matcine (Malaysia; Thailand)
Neomazine (Korea)
Plegomazine (Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Bermuda; Curacao; Guyana; Iraq; Jamaica; Dutch Antilles; Surinam; Trinidad)
Promactil (Indonesia)
Promexin (Japan)
Propaphenin (Germany)
Prozil (Denmark)
Prozin (Italy)
Psynor (Philippines)
Taroctyl (Israel)
Winsumin (Taiwan)
Wintermin (Japan; Taiwan)
 

Other Forms: Sustained-release spansule capsules, syrup, intramuscular injection, syrup, and the ever-so-popular suppositories.

FDA Approved Uses: Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (one of the first), intractable hiccoughs, severe nausea & vomiting,  pre-surgical anxiety, tetanus, conduct disorders in children.  Thorazine (chlorpromazine) is approved to treat both adults and children for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Off-Label Uses: Migraines, insomnia, blindness.

Pros:  Cheaper than dirt, little chance for the weight gain and associated diabetes that comes with atypical antipsychotics such as Zyprexa and Seroquel.

Cons: You're more likely to get EPS and tardive dyskinesia than the atypical antipsychotics.

Typical Side Effects: The usual that come with any antipsychotic - drowsiness and lethargy, a feeling of being disconnected from reality, emotional numbing, not really giving a damn.  Put it all together and they add up to what is known as, "zombification."  Fortunately all of these tend to go away, at varying rates, in a matter of weeks.

Not So Common Side Effects:

 These may or may not happen to you don't, so don't be surprised one way or the other.

 You aren't going to get these. I promise.

For all side effects, please see the PI sheet.

Interesting Stuff Your Doctor Probably Won't Tell You:  You may have had Thorazine and never knew it.  Many standard antipsychotics are given in emergency rooms every day as anti-nausea medications.

Dosage: 10-200mg a day for outpatient adult bipolar and schizophrenia.  Up to 800mg a day for the truly crazy inpatients.  10 to 50mg a day for all other approved applications.  Thorazine is usually taken twice a day, although for the nausea and other applications one doesn't usually associate with Thorazine it can be administered up to eight times a day. 

For bipolar and schizophrenic children the dosage is usually based on weight for the younger ones, with the dosage usually not exceeding 100mg a day.  Until the kids start getting near adult age and size, then it's 200mg a day, more if the symptoms are really severe and the child is hospitalized.  At least they capped it at 500mg a day for us tards.  Yay fo us!

Days to Reach a Steady State:

When you're fully saturated with the medication and less prone to peaks and valleys of effects. You still might have peaks of effect after taking many meds, but with a lot of the meds you'll have fewer valleys after this point. In theory anyway.

How Long Thorazine Takes to Work: Like most antipsychotics within days for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.  For other popular applications that have nothing to do with brain cooties (e.g. those intractable hiccoughs) within hours.

Half-Life & Average Time to Clear Out of Your System:

If you've worked your way up to a particular dosage, it's usually best to spend this many days at the next lowest dosage before going down the next lowest dosage before that and so forth. This is the least sucky way to avoid problems when stopping any psychiatric medication. Presuming you have the option of slowly tapering off them.

Comments: Thorazine was the first medication, or one of the first, approved to treat what was then known as manic-depression. 

Chlorpromazine was synthesized for Rhone-Poulenc in 1950.  One of the first of the phenothiazes, the drug class was originally being developed to treat malaria and as antihistamines. Hence all the antiemetic (to help you stop spenching [vomiting]) properties and why you get tired.  Thanks to the French willingness to test head meds on humans soon after they learn such meds won't kill animals, the phenothiazines were quickly recognized for their anti-anxiety properties along with the anti-nausea and sedative properties.

French researchers began testing it on hospitalized bipolar patients in 1951.  Unfortunately the French had been burned too many times by drug companies promising more than they could deliver, so it didn't go beyond being used for much other than a presurgical knock-out drug in France. US researchers read the papers that were published by the few researchers will to give it a try and picked up the ball.

In 1954 Thorazine was released in the US market by Smith, Kline and French under a licensing deal from chlorpromazine's pioneer (drug company speak for developer and/or original manufacturer) Rhoune-Poulenc.

Within a few years there were 16 standard antipsychotics on the market, a few of which are still around today.  As Thorazine's approval to treat bipolar disorder predates lithium's by 16 years.  Thorazine's approval to treat pediatric schizophrenia and bipolar disorder predates Risperdal's approval for such by decades.

Manufacturer:Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, Thorazine was manufactured in the United States by a company known as Smith, Kline and French.  Nowadays everyone around here gets generic chlorpromazine from a dozen or so generics manufacturers.  And that

Sample US Cost:

Check for Drug-Drug Interactions

US PI Sheet

South African chlorpromazine injection Package Insert

New Zealand Largactil PI Sheet

UK Largactil PI Sheet

Canadian Largactil Monograph

Please see the section on how to read these sheets. Don't freak out about every potential side effect. Look at the odds of something having happened during the clinical trials.

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Copyright © 2003 - 2010 Jerod Poore. All rights reserved.

Almost all of the material on this site is copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 Jerod Poore. Except, of course, the PI sheets, those are the property of the drug companies who developed the drugs the sheets are about.  And any documents that are written by other people which may be posted to this site will remain the property of the original authors.  You cannot reproduce this page or any other material on this site outside of the boundaries of fair use copying without the express permission of the copyright holder.  That's usually me, so just ask first.  That means if want to print out a few pages to take to your doctor, therapist, counselor, support group, non-understanding family members or something like that - then that's OK to just do.  Go for it!  Please.  As long as you include this copyright notice and the following disclaimer, I'm cool with it.

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