[Antiemetic therapy with timiperone in cisplatin-induced vomiting]

A new neuroleptic drug, Timiperone, is able to exert an antiapomorphine effect at doses smaller than cataleptogenic doses. Nineteen patients with urologic malignancy undergoing chemotherapy with cisplatin in combination with other agents were studied for the antiemetic efficacy of Timiperone. Six of 8 patients over 46 years old treated with Timiperone 6 mg/day p.o. from the day before undergoing DDP therapy to the last day of the therapy had no episode of vomiting and 2 patients had a few episodes of emesis (one and two episodes during 5 days of undergoing DDP, respectively). Five patients under 45 years old given Timiperone 6 mg/day by the same method had few episodes of vomiting, but suffered from extrapyramidal symptoms. Finally 6 patients undergoing DDP with Timiperone in combination with trihexyphenidyl suffered no symptoms of catalepsy but sometimes had mild vomiting episodes (1-4 times a day). We would like to propose that in antiemetic therapy with Timiperone for cisplatin-induced nausea and vomiting, a dose of 4.5 mg/day be given from two days before undergoing chemotherapy because of the cumulative effect of Timiperone.