Implications of sustained release phenothiazines: a study of fluphenazine decanoate.

The article focuses on a study designed to investigate the efficacy of fluphenazine enanthate and decanoate. In the study, long-stay psychotic patients were reviewed and cases with coexisting physical illness were immediately excluded. Because of the undesirability of unnecessary phenothiazine, maintenance attempts were made to stop existing drugs or change to others. Following initial ratings, a test dose of decanoate has been prescribed. Of the 40 subjects who passed the initial criteria, 39 has completed the entire trial. One subject was removed after six weeks of the trial because of severe and intransigent extrapyramidal symptoms which could not be controlled either by adjustment of decanoate dosage or the use of antiparkinson agents.