The effect of perphenazine treatment during the organogenesis in rats

The teratogenic effect of perphenazine was studied in closed-bred Wistar rats. Rats were given the substance orally continuously on days 7 to 14 of pregnancy, or as a single dose on one of days 9-15. The doses were considerably higher than the specific neuroleptic doses of perphenazine (20-150 mg/kg). The fetal mortality and malformation rates were significantly higher in the perphenazine-treated groups than in the controls. The results were compared with the earlier results of methophenazine treatment. Perphenazine was found to be more toxic for rat embryos than methophenazine.