Mammotropic Effect of Butyrophenones

Abstract

The clinical use of butyrophenones as neuroleptics originated at the research laboratories of Janssen Pharmaceutica in Beerse (Belgium) about ten years ago. It arose from a systematic investigation of the relationship between the chemical structure of 4-phenyl-piperidines and propiophenones and their pharmacological properties. Members of the higher homologue, the butyrophenones, proved to have a clear antipsychotic neuroleptic potency, and quite a few of them are used nowadays in psychiatry, obstetrics and anesthesiology (Janssen et al., 1959; Haase and Janssen, 1965). They posses chlorpromazine-like properties (Janssen, 1967 a, b), and were brought to our attention through their mammotropic activity, which may be a possible side-effect at unusually high clinical dose levels.