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Following a 2-week placebo lead-in, schizophrenic patients were randomly assigned to fluoxetine 20 mg/day or placebo added to depot neuroleptic for a 6-week, double blind trial. All patients had received a stable dose of depot neuroleptic for at least 6 months and did not meet criteria for depression. Serum samples were obtained at baseline and at weeks 4 and 6. Scores on the negative symptom subscale of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) were significantly lower at week 6, controlling for baseline scores, in patients receiving fluoxetine (n = 20) compared to patients receiving placebo (n = 21). Measures of psychosis, depression, global functioning and extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) did not differ between groups at week 6. Fluoxetine administration was associated with a mean 65% increase in serum fluphenazine concentrations in 15 patients and a mean 20% increase in serum haloperidol concentrations in three patients. The change in negative symptoms at week 6 did not correlate with serum concentrations of fluoxetine or norfluoxetine, but did inversely correlate with S-norfluoxetine, an active stereoisomer of fluoxetine. For these chronically ill patients, fluoxetine significantly improved negative symptoms and did not worsen EPS, despite causing substantial elevation in serum concentrations of neuroleptics.

This review covers some recent work on: 1. The effects of route of administration on the pharmacokinetics of fluphenazine and some of its metabolites; 2. The clinical pharmacokinetics of fluphenazine in acute patients medicated with oral fluphenazine; 3. The clinical pharmacokinetics of haloperidol in acute patients medicated with oral haloperidol; 4. The clinical pharmacokinetics of fluphenazine in the maintenance of individuals with chronic schizophrenia with fluphenazine decanoate; 5. A systematic dose reduction study in maintenance treatment refractory patients with oral haloperidol. A study in which plasma levels of fluphenazine and fluphenazine sulfoxide were measured in a group of DSM-III-R patients with schizophrenia before and after switching from oral fluphenazine to depot fluphenazine, decanoate revealed much higher levels of fluphenazine sulfoxide with oral medication compared with those found with depot fluphenazine. These data illustrate the effect of "first pass" metabolism after oral fluphenazine. Thus in a group of 33 patients randomly assigned to receive 5 mg, 10 mg or 25 mg oral fluphenazine daily, steady state plasma fluphenazine levels at each dose were significantly lower that those of fluphenazine sulfoxide or 7-hydroxy-fluphenazine, although there were no significant differences between the levels of fluphenazine and fluphenazine N4-oxide. On the other hand, plasma levels of the parent drug were significantly higher than those of any metabolite in a corresponding group of patients at steady state on depot medication. These observations underscore the importance of route dependent differences in the pharmacokinetics of fluphenazine which can lead to problems when switching patients from oral to depot neuroleptics. The concept of "disabling side-effects" is an important development in understanding relationships between plasma levels of neuroleptic drugs and clinical response in patients with schizophrenia. Risk-benefit analysis shows clearly that evaluation of relationships between plasma levels and clinical response must take into account the consequences of side-effects which the patient feels have a negating effect on therapy. Emerging data on putative therapeutic plasma level ranges in maintenance therapy are potentially important and may be particularly useful in the maintenance of patients on low dose therapy. It is noteworthy that in a carefully executed dose reduction study in treatment resistant patients under medication with haloperidol, the mean lowest effective dose (8.7 ng/mL) lay within the optimal therapeutic range (5 ng/mL to 12 ng/mL) found in acutely psychotic patients. The study showed that gradual dose reduction of neuroleptic was possible in chronic treatment resistant patients with schizophrenia who were originally thought by ward staff to require high doses of neuroleptic.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Haloperidol (HAL) is a potent butyrophenone antipsychotic agent which is reversibly metabolized to reduced haloperidol (RHAL). In order to determine if this reversible metabolic pathway is linked to the debrisoquine 4-hydroxylase isozyme of cytochrome P-450 (P450IID6). HAL (5 mg) or RHAL (5 mg) was orally administered to healthy male volunteers in a randomized crossover design both with and without a prior (1 h) oral dose of quinidine (250 mg bisulfate), a potent inhibitor of this isozyme. Thirteen volunteers, 11 extensive metabolizers, 2 poor metabolizers, completed all four phases of the study. Plasma samples harvested over seven days were analysed for HAL and RHAL. An expression for the apparent fractional availability of metabolite from the parent compound given (Fapppm) was derived and was used to determine whether HAL or RHAL is the preferred metabolite, and whether quinidine co-administration alters Fapp for either compound. The AUC (0-t) for both HAL and RHAL were significantly greater following the administration of either compound with quinidine compared with AUC (0-t) values obtained in the absence of quinidine. The maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) of the administered compound was also greater following the administration of quinidine. Quinidine had no effect on the half-lives of the administered compounds. The Fapp for HAL and RHAL were not significantly affected by the administration of quinidine, indicating that the interconversion of HAL and RHAl is not linked to P450IID6. The Fapp of RHAL after administration of HAL was significantly greater than the Fapp of HAL after RHAL administration, indicating that RHAL is the preferred metabolic form. This difference was not affected by quinidine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Single oral doses (5 mg) of haloperidol were administered to 36 healthy men (26 black, 10 white) of whom 28 (22 black, 6 white) completed the study. Plasma samples harvested over 96 hours were analyzed for haloperidol and reduced haloperidol by means of a new high performance liquid chromatographic method. Reduced haloperidol was detectable in the plasma of only six of the 28 subjects (five blacks, one white). In these individuals reduced haloperidol plasma concentrations were generally much lower than those of the parent drug. This finding in the present single-dose study is in contrast to literature reports that have described levels of reduced haloperidol higher than those of the parent drug in some patients chronically mediated with haloperidol. There was wide intersubject variation in area under the plasma concentration versus time curve and apparent oral clearance values for haloperidol. The distributions of these pharmacokinetic parameters about their respective means were each leptokurtotic and skewed toward higher values. In each case the geometric mean gave a better estimate of central tendency than the arithmetic mean. Wide intersubject variation prevented the detection of significant differences in these pharmacokinetic parameters between black and white subjects or between smokers and nonsmokers.

A new analytical method has been developed for the simultaneous quantitation of haloperidol and reduced haloperidol in plasma. The method is based on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with coulometric detection. The extraction and sample clean up procedures are simple and rapid to execute, yet yield chromatograms virtually free of interference from endogenous plasma constituents, such that the extraordinary sensitivity of the coulometric detector can be exploited fully. The detection limits for haloperidol and reduced haloperidol are 20 pg/ml plasma, and the limits of quantitation are 50 pg/ml for both drug and metabolite. Standard curves were linear down to 50 pg/ml with coefficients of variation of less than 7.0% at the limits of quantitation. The method was applied to the study of the plasma levels of haloperidol and reduced haloperidol in two healthy subjects. It was possible to monitor the plasma levels of haloperidol for at least 96 h (4 days) after the administration of a 5-mg oral dose of haloperidol. It was also possible to monitor reduced haloperidol levels over 96 h in one subject, although the metabolite was not detectable in the plasma of the other at any stage.

The interconversion between haloperidol (HAL) and reduced haloperidol (RHAL) was examined following their separate administration in low (5 mg) single oral doses to 15 young healthy male volunteers in a crossover design. Using an ultrasensitive HPLC method plasma concentrations of HAL and RHAL were monitored over a period of one week following each administration. Except in one case, both the analytes were found in the plasma of all the volunteers following each administration, thereby indicating interconversion of the two compounds. Comparison of the AUC(0-t) ratios of RHAL/HAL and HAL/RHAL following administration of HAL and RHAL, respectively, revealed that the interconversion favours the reduction of HAL to RHAL. The disposition of HAL following administration of RHAL appears to be limited by its rate of formation and the disposition of RHAL following administration of HAL, on the other hand, is much slower than that of the parent compound.

The bioavailability of a new tablet formulation (5 mg) of haloperidol was estimated relative to two lots of a reference product. Twenty-eight healthy male volunteers completed all three phases in that they received the test (T) and the two reference formulations (R1 and R2) in a balanced three-way crossover design. Using a sensitive HPLC method, plasma concentrations of haloperidol and reduced haloperidol were monitored over a period of 96 h following administration of each formulation. Haloperidol was measurable in the plasma of all the volunteers, whereas reduced haloperidol was measurable in only 6 out of 28 volunteers following each administration. Therefore, the assessment of bioequivalence in this study is based on haloperidol data only. The maximum plasma concentration (Cmax), time to Cmax (tmax), and area under the curve up to the last measurable concentration (AUCot) or infinity (AUCo infinity) were compared by analyses of variance and found not to be significantly different across the formulations. The relative bioavailability based on T:R1 or T:R2 ratios of AUCo infinity, AUCot, and Cmax was, in each case, within the acceptable range of 100 +/- 20%. Also, the relative bioavailability of R1 compared with R2 was within 100 +/- 20% in terms of the above bioavailability parameters. Except for tmax, all other pharmacokinetic parameters showed wide intersubject variation.