Melperone is a prescription medication (psychotropic drug) for the treatment of specific mental impairments and disorders involving nocturnal confusion and psychomotor agitation and agitation. Due to its good tolerability, it is used in psychiatry, especially in geriatric psychiatry in the treatment of elderly patients, showing good treatment success.
What is melperone?
Melperone is a medication used to treat specific mental impairments and disorders involving nocturnal confusion and psychomotor agitation and agitation. Mental disorders are caused, among other things, by changes in the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, whose receptors in the central nervous system must be inhibited in their action. So-called antagonists regulate the influence of these neurotransmitters on the psyche. Modern medicine has various drugs available for this purpose, including dopamine antagonists such as melperone. The psychopharmacological active ingredient melperone from the butyrophenone group belongs to the group of moderately potent neuroleptics with a nerve-dampening, antipsychotic and sedative mode of action. The active ingredient melperone is found in the drug of the same name, Melperon, as well as in drugs with the common names Eunerpan, Melneurin, Buronil, as well as various generics (a generic is a copy with the same active ingredient of an original drug already on the market under a brand name, but with different excipients and manufacturing technologies). Melperon is available in both film-coated tablet and solution form.
Pharmacologic Action
Higher doses of melperone have a sleep-inducing effect (hypnotic component of action). The drug also promotes muscle relaxation and has a mild balancing effect on heart rhythm. Melperon is prescribed by physicians primarily for sleep disorders characterized by states of confusion, agitation and tension. During treatment with melperone, very little or no extrapyramidal disturbances of the nervous system are to be expected compared to other low- and medium-potency neuroleptics. It has a minor effect on the cardiovascular system as well as a very minor delirious effect. The convulsive threshold is not lowered by melperone, which is why the active substance is suitable for patients suffering from convulsions (tonic-clonic spasms of the body muscles) as an adjunct to anticonvulsant therapy. Not least because of these generally well-tolerated properties, melperone is frequently prescribed in the treatment of psychiatric disorders in the elderly. The half-life of melperone is 6 to 8 hours. Elimination of the drug occurs primarily via the kidneys (renal), largely as metabolites after intensive metabolism.
Medical use and application
Melperone is indicated for sleep disorders, restlessness, agitation, and anxiety disorders, confusion, delirium in dementia, or alcoholic delirium. Supplemental medication of melperone at night is also promising in anxious-depressed patients. As already mentioned, melperone is highly valued due to its generally well-tolerated properties, especially with regard to lack of muscle relaxation, particularly in the therapy of gerontopsychiatric patients. The risk of falls at night in elderly patients with dangerous injuries or fractures is lower under treatment with melperone than under the use of some other neuroleptics. However, not only elderly patients, but also patients with other psychiatric disorders, such as psychosis, oligophrenia (mental retardation), psychoneuroses or organic dementia benefit from treatment with melperone when the use of other sedatives such as tranquilizers is of little use. In the active ingredient melperone, the sedative effect component predominates over the antipsychotic effect component and only with very high doses of about 200 to 400 mg/day can an antipsychotic effect be achieved, which in turn can lead to other undesirable side effects. For this reason, for example, if positive symptoms of psychosis are present, melperone is not the agent of first choice for monotherapy.
Risks and side effects
Some undesirable side effects may occur with the use of melperone.These include nausea, vomiting, hypotension, hypersensitivity reactions, allergic skin reactions, isolated extrapyramidal disorders and disorders of involuntary movements. Increased fatigue may occur, especially at the beginning of treatment. Treatment with melperone is not suitable in cases of hypersensitivity to one of the ingredients of the drug, alcohol intoxication or intoxication with sleeping pills or painkillers, severe liver dysfunction, and a history of malignant neuroleptic syndrome (MNS, a severe and sometimes life-threatening side effect of neuroleptics). Children under 12 years of age and pregnant women should not be treated with melperone. Because melperone may affect reaction time, caution is advised when driving a motor vehicle or operating machinery. Melperon as well as simultaneous consumption of alcohol should be strictly avoided. Coffee, tea or milk may also undesirably impair the effect of melperone. Melperone and some drugs from the group of tricyclic antidepressants, drugs against Parkinson’s disease or the simultaneous use of other dopamine antagonists, for example metoclopramide, may mutually influence/enhance each other’s effect. The anticholinergic effect of certain medications with consequences such as dry mouth, visual disturbances, accelerated heartbeat, memory impairment or constipation, may also be enhanced. Melperone, when taken concomitantly, weakens the effect of the prolactin-inhibiting agent gonadorelin. Melperone and certain medications for cardiac arrhythmias, certain antibiotics, drainage agents (agents that cause potassium deficiency), and medications with agents that inhibit the breakdown of melperone in the liver should not be taken at the same time.
