Melperon

Melperon is a prescription drug (psychotropic drugs) for the treatment of special psychological impairments and illnesses with nocturnal confusion and psychomotor restlessness and agitation. Due to its good tolerance, it is used in psychiatry, especially in geriatric psychiatry for the treatment of older patients, and has shown good treatment results.

What is Melperon?

Melperon is a drug for the treatment of special psychological impairments and illnesses with nocturnal confusion as well as psychomotor restlessness and excitement.

Mental illnesses can be traced back to changes in the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, whose receptors in the central nervous system have to be inhibited.

So-called antagonists regulate the influence of these neurotransmitters on the psyche. Various drugs are available to modern medicine for this purpose, including dopamine antagonists such as Melperon. The psychopharmacological active ingredient melperon from the group of butyrophenones belongs to the medium-potency neuroleptics with nerve-suppressing, antipsychotic and sedative effects.

The active ingredient Melperon is found in the drug of the same name, Melperon, as well as in drugs with the common names Eunerpan®, Melneurin®, Buronil® and various generics (a generic is the same active ingredient copy of an original product already available on the market under a brand name, but with different ones Auxiliary materials and manufacturing technologies).

Melperon is available both in the form of film-coated tablets and as a solution.

Pharmacological effect

Higher doses of Melperon have a sleep-inducing effect (hypnotic effect component). The active ingredient also promotes relaxation of the muscles and has a mildly balancing effect on the heart rhythm.

Melperon is primarily prescribed by a doctor for sleep disorders that are characterized by states of confusion, excitement and tension. When treating with Melperon, very little or no extrapyramidal disorders of the nervous system are to be expected in comparison to other low- and medium-potency neuroleptics. It has little impact on the cardiovascular system and very little delirium-inducing effect.

The seizure threshold is not reduced by Melperon, which is why the active ingredient is suitable for patients suffering from convulsions (tonic-clonic spasms of the body muscles) accompanying an anticonvulsant therapy. Not least because of these generally well-tolerated properties, Melperon is often prescribed in the treatment of psychiatric illnesses in older people.

The half-life of Melperon is 6 to 8 hours. The active ingredient is mainly eliminated via the kidneys (renal), after intensive metabolism largely as metabolites.

Medical application & use

Melperon is indicated for sleep disorders, restlessness, arousal and anxiety disorders, confusion, delirium in dementia or alcoholic delirium. The additional medication of Melperon at night is also promising for anxious-depressed patients.

As already mentioned, because of its generally well-tolerated properties, especially with regard to the lack of muscle relaxation, melperone is very much valued in the therapy of geriatric psychiatric patients. Older patients with dangerous injuries or fractures are less likely to fall at night under treatment with Melperon than with some other neuroleptics.

But not only older patients, also patients with other psychiatric illnesses such as psychoses, oligophrenia (intellectual disability), psychoneuroses or organically caused dementia benefit from treatment with Melperon if the use of other sedatives such as tranquilizers does not make sense.

In the active ingredient Melperon, the sedative active component predominates over the antipsychotic and only very high doses of around 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 there are positive symptoms of psychosis, the active ingredient melperon is not the first choice for monotherapy.

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Risks & side effects

Using Melperon there may be some undesirable side effects. These include nausea, vomiting, hypotension, hypersensitivity reactions, allergic skin reactions, isolated extrapyramidal disorders and disorders of the involuntary movement sequences. Particularly at the beginning of the treatment, you may feel more tired.

Treatment with Melperon is not suitable in the case of hypersensitivity to one of the ingredients of the drug, alcohol poisoning or poisoning with sleep medication or painkillers, severe liver dysfunction or a malignant neuroleptic syndrome (MNS, a serious and sometimes life-threatening side effect of neuroleptics) that has already occurred in the patient's past .

Children under the age of 12 and pregnant women should not be treated with Melperon.

Since Melperon can influence the ability to react, caution should be exercised when driving a motor vehicle and using machines. Melperon and the simultaneous consumption of alcohol must be strictly avoided. Coffee, tea or milk can also have an undesirable effect on the effectiveness of Melperon.

Melperon 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, can mutually influence / intensify their effects.

The anticholinergic effect of certain medications, with consequences such as dry mouth, visual disturbances, accelerated heartbeat, memory problems or constipation, can also be increased. Melperon weakens the effect of the prolactin-inhibiting agent gonadorelin when taken at the same time.

Melperon and certain drugs for cardiac arrhythmias, certain antibiotics, diuretics (active ingredients that lead to a potassium deficiency) and medicines with active ingredients that inhibit the breakdown of Melperon in the liver must not be taken at the same time.