"Clubbing" -- a side-effect of long-term phenothiazines treatment

A schizophrenic-paranoid patient was on a continuous maintenance treatment of phenothiazines for 5 years. 8 weeks after switching over to fluphenazine enanthlate injections intramuscularly, "clubbed fingers" occurred. The results of thorough examinations were within normal limits, so the phenothiazine treatment was presumed to be the cause of clubbing. It is suggested than anoxia of the distal tissue gives rise to clubbing due to arterial hypotension, slowing down of the blood and viscosity of the blood.