Why was perphenazine chosen as the older medication rather than haloperidol?
A. Haloperidol was one of the most widely prescribed of the older antipsychotics before the “atypical” newer antipsychotics became available in the 1990s. It remains the most frequently used comparison drug in industry-sponsored clinical trials. However, patients who take haloperidol experience high rates of movement side effects, called extrapyramidal side effects (EPS), such as rigidity and stiff movements, persistent muscle spasms, tremors, and uncontrollable restlessness. Because many individuals find EPS particularly difficult to tolerate, haloperidol is an unpopular treatment choice for many people with schizophrenia. Although EPS is associated to some degree with all the older “typical” antipsychotic medications, perphenazine is an effective older antipsychotic that is less likely to produce EPS. This made it a good choice to use as the representative of the older medications in this study.
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