Chlorpromazine Plasma Levels and Effects

Does a plasma level of chlorpromazine help?

“…Non-response in this sample, contrary to reports that non-responders have lower plasma levels (Curry et al 1970;Garver et al 1977;Rivera-Calimlim et al 1976;Smith et al 1979) (not all on CPZ), appeared to be a matter of the illness' insensitivity to^CPZ, not to a 'steady state' plasma level below some therapeutic window. The concept is important, because present clinical practice is to increase the dose in 'non-responders' on the simplistic assumption that lack of response is due to an abnormally low plasma level.…”

Clinical significance of plasma chlorpromazine levels I. Plasma levels of the drug, some of its metabolites and prolactin during acute treatment

“…The range of plasma CPZ levels found in these patients is comparable to those described by Sakalis et al (1972) in acute patients, and by Curry et al (1970) and Mackay et al (1974) in chronic ones. The relationship between CPZ dose and plasma level was complicated: at doses up to 400 mg/day or 7 mg/kg/day, plasma levels were related to the dose but with higher doses plasma levels of CPZ were actually lower.…”

Selective Inhibitory Effects of Chlorpromazine and Imipramine on Platelet Aggregation

“…In addition to that, the inhibitory effect by chlorpromazine on platelet aggregation was apparent at only 1 nM, which is very similar to the drug concentrations in the brains of patients receiving chlorpromazine treatment [20]. These results suggest that psychotropic drugs could exert their action in the central nervous system in a manner similar to the platelets.…”