Levomepromazine, otherwise called methotrimeprazine, is a phenothiazine neuroleptic medicine. It is a mild antipsychotic (around half as powerful as chlorpromazine) with pain-relieving, sleep-inducing, and antiemetic characteristics. It is a medication that is broadly utilized in palliative care as an antipsychotic, anxiolytic, antiemetic and narcotic drug. Nonetheless, supporting proof is limited in terms of studies and case reports. In this way, more clinical trials are expected to help prove their safety and efficacy.
This medicine is used to treat dyskinesias, which are dull, automatic, and unconscious body or facial movements, Parkinsonism, akathisia, and dystonias, such as muscle withdrawals that cause irregular winding of some parts of the body, commonly in the neck. These effects are brought about by the dopamine receptor antagonist activity of this medication. Just like other phenothiazine antipsychotics, levomepromazine exerts its effects by hindering some receptors such as adrenergic receptors, dopamine receptors, histamine receptors, muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, and serotonin receptors. It tends to be utilized as a pain reliever for moderate to serious pain in non-walking patients, due to its powerful sedative effects.
Levomepromazine is additionally utilized at lower dosages for the treatment of nausea and sleep deprivation. Adverse reactions include tardive dyskinesia, akathisia, irregularities in the electrical cycle of the heart, hypotension and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Studies have shown that levomepromazine may cause less extrapyramidal side effects than the drug haloperidol. Present evidence is still lacking as to the differences between the effects of levomepromazine and other antipsychotic drugs.
