Adverse Effects of Prochlorperazine

Clinical Context and Severity

• The American Family Physician guidelines list drowsiness as a side effect of prochlorperazine, alongside more serious adverse effects such as hypotension, tachycardia, akathisia, pseudo-parkinsonism, tardive dyskinesia, and dystonia, with drowsiness being generally moderate and less problematic than its extrapyramidal side effects 1

Practical Implications

• The NCCN Palliative Care Guidelines suggest that the sedating properties of phenothiazines, a class of drugs that includes prochlorperazine, can be therapeutically useful in certain contexts, such as refractory insomnia in dying patients 2