Chlorpromazine is a antipsychotic medication. It is primarily used to treat psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. It is used in the treatment of both acute and chronic psychoses, including schizophrenia and the manic phase of bipolar disorder, as well as amphetamine induced psychosis.
It has also been used in porphyria and as part of tetanus treatment. It still is recommended for short-term management of severe anxiety and psychotic aggression. Resistant and severe hiccups, severe nausea or emesis, and preanesthetic conditioning are other uses.
Symptoms of delirium in hospitalized AIDS patients have been effectively treated with low doses of chlorpromazine.
Chlorpromazine is occasionally used off label for treatment of severe migraine. It is often, particularly as palliation, used in small doses to reduce nausea suffered by opioid treated cancer patients and to intensify and prolong the analgesia of the opioids as well. Efficacy has been shown in treatment of symptomatic hypertensive emergency.
In Germany, chlorpromazine still carries label indications for insomnia, severe pruritus, and preanesthesia.
