Perphenazine, commonly known by the brand name Trilafon, is a medium-potency, typical antipsychotic drug. It is prescribed as treatment for a number of distinct psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and occasionally depression.
When prescribed to schizophrenic patients, Trilafon is effective in mitigating positive symptoms like hallucinations and delusions. Its effect on negative symptoms is less clear. Typical antipsychotics have long been thought to be ineffective in combating symptoms like flattened affect and poverty of speech, but more recent research is beginning to show comparable efficacy between Trilafon and atypical antipsychotics, which have demonstrable therapeutic value for negative symptoms.
In low doses, and in combination with antidepressants, Trilafon can be effective in treating major depression. Despite having no inherent antidepressant effects of its own, Trilafon can help to mitigate some of the negative side effects of common antidepressants. In particular, patients taking fluoxetine (Prozac) will often benefit from Trilafon's sedative properties during the often turbulent first few weeks of treatment. Trilafon can also attenuate nausea and vomiting associated with fluoxetine use.
The biggest practical hurdle when taking Trilafon can be overcoming the significant sleepiness brought on by its sedative properties. Clinicians have found that effectiveness can be maintained if one third of the daily dose is administered in the morning and two-thirds immediately before bed. This minimizes daytime somnolence. As always, it's important to understand and follow doctors' dosage instructions. Besides sleepiness, Trilafon's side effects are consistent with other medium-potency antipsychotics.
