Alteration of copper metabolism in chlorpromazine-treated cases.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that some cases treated with chlorpromazine show alterations of copper metabolism, and a syndrome similar perhaps in some respects to Wilson's disease (hepatolenticular degeneration). Azima and Ogle,1Lehman and Hanrahan,2and others have previously reported a 5% incidence of extrapyramidal complications, or what appears to be a Parkinson-like syndrome, in chlorpromazine-treated cases. The development of extrapyramidal signs, and the occurrence of liver damage, which also is found in 5% to 15% of persons treated with chlorpromazine,* led us to the supposition that perhaps the phenomenon represented a hepatolenticular disturbance similar to Wilson's disease. Although the hepatic lesions associated with chlorpromazine therapy appear to be cholangiolitic in nature,3whereas in Wilson's disease they are parenchymal, there is no definite evidence that the hepatic lesions in the early stages of Wilson's disease are solely parenchymal, or that the continuation of chlorpromazine