WARNINGS
Patients to be treated with trihexyphenidyl HCl should have a gonioscope evaluation and close monitoring of intraocular pressures at regular periodic intervals.
PRECAUTIONS
Although trihexyphenidyl HCl is not contraindicated for patients with cardiac, liver, or kidney disorders, or with hypertension, such patients should be maintained under close observation.
Since the use of trihex-yphenidyl HCl may, in some cases, continue indefinitely and since it has atropine-like properties, patients should be subjected to constant and careful long-term observation to avoid allergic and other untoward reactions. In as much as trihexyphenidyl HCl possesses some parasympatholytic activity, it should be used with caution in patients with glaucoma, obstructive disease of the gastrointestinal or genitourinary tracts, and in elderly males with possible prostatic hypertrophy. Geriatric patients, particularly over the age of 60, frequently develop increased sensitivity to the actions of drugs of this type, and hence, require strict dosage regulation. Incipient glaucoma may be precipitated by parasympatholytic drugs such as trihexyphenidyl HCl.
Tardive dyskinesia may appear in some patients on long term therapy with antipsychotic drugs or may occur after therapy when these drugs have been discontinued. Antiparkinson agents do not alleviate the symptoms of tardive dyskinesia and in some instances may aggravate them. However, parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia often coexist in patients receiving chronic neuroleptic treatment, and anticholinergic therapy with trihexyphenidyl hydrochloride may relieve some of these parkinsonism symptoms.
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