Last reviewed 2026-04-20 · How we verify

Trilafon (PERPHENAZINE)

Trilafon (Perphenazine) is a phenothiazine antipsychotic medication originally developed by and currently owned by Schering. It targets the D(3) dopamine receptor and is FDA-approved for treating mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, nausea and vomiting, and schizophrenia. As an off-patent medication, Trilafon is available from multiple generic manufacturers. With a half-life of 9.4 hours and bioavailability of 40%, it is a small molecule modality. Key safety considerations include its potential for extrapyramidal side effects and tardive dyskinesia.

At a glance

Approved indications

• Mixed anxiety and depressive disorder
• Nausea and vomiting
• Schizophrenia

Boxed warnings

• WARNING Increased Mortality in Elderly Patients with Dementia-Related Psychosis Elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death. Analyses of seventeen placebo-controlled trials (modal duration of 10 weeks), largely in patients taking atypical antipsychotic drugs, revealed a risk of death in drug-treated patients of between 1.6 to 1.7 times the risk of death in placebo-treated patients. Over the course of a typical 10-week controlled trial, the rate of death in drug-treated patients was about 4.5%, compared to a rate of about 2.6% in the placebo group. Although the causes of death were varied, most of the deaths appeared to be either cardiovascular (e.g., heart failure, sudden death) or infectious (e.g., pneumonia) in nature. Observational studies suggest that, similar to atypical antipsychotic drugs, treatment with conventional antipsychotic drugs may increase mortality. The extent to which the findings of increased mortality in observational studies may be attributed to the antipsychotic drug as opposed to some characteristic(s) of the patients is not clear. Perphenazine tablets, USP are not approved for the treatment of patients with dementia-related psychosis ( see WARNINGS ).

Common side effects

• Dystonia
• Tardive Dyskinesia
• Cerebral Edema
• Cardiac Arrest
• Asphyxia
• Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome
• Convulsive Seizures
• Hyperreflexia
• Drowsiness
• Hypnotic Effects
• Paradoxical Exacerbation of Psychotic Symptoms
• Catatonic-Like States

Drug interactions

• cabergoline
• entacapone
• levodopa
• pergolide
• pramipexole
• ropinirole

Key clinical trials

• Recommendations of Enhanced Recovery Interventions for Patient's Clinical Team and Collection of Associated Data (PHASE3)
• Evaluation of D3 Receptor Occupancy Using FLUORTRIOPRIDE ([18F]FTP) PET/CT (PHASE1,PHASE2)
• A Study to Assess Stroke Risk Among Users of Typical Versus Atypical Antipsychotics Stratified by Broad Age Group
• A Study to Compare Disease Progression and Modification Following Treatment With Paliperidone Palmitate Long-Acting Injection or Oral Antipsychotics in Participant's With Recent-onset Schizophrenia or Schizophreniform (PHASE3)
• Sequential Multiple-Assignment Randomized Trials to Compare Antipsychotic Treatments(SMART-CAT) (PHASE3)
• Longitudinal Comparative Effectiveness of Bipolar Disorder Therapies
• Networked Drug REpurposing for Mechanism-based neuroPrOtection in Acute Ischaemic STROKE (PHASE2)
• Possible Effects of Propylthiouracil, Riociguat and Perphenazine on Circulation of Healthy Volunteers (PHASE1)

Primary sources

Every claim on this page is sourced from regulatory or scientific primary sources. See our editorial policy for full methodology.

Competitive intelligence

For the full competitive landscape — auto-detected comparators, recent regulatory actions across the set, upcoming PDUFA, patent timeline, sponsor landscape:

• Trilafon CI brief — competitive landscape report
• Trilafon updates RSS · CI watch RSS