Sodium nitroprusside 50mg powder and solvent for solution for infusion vials
Requires a prescription from a doctor or prescriber
Nitroprusside serves as a source of nitric oxide, a potent peripheral vasodilator that affects both arterioles and venules (venules more than arterioles).
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Yellow Card reports
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Suspected adverse reactions reported for Sodium nitroprusside
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Submit a Yellow Card report to the MHRA
Data from the MHRA Yellow Card scheme. A reported reaction does not necessarily mean the medicine caused it. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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Suspected adverse reactions reported for Sodium nitroprusside
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2 branded products available
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Nitroprussiat Fides 50mg powder and solvent for solution for infusion vials
Sodium nitroprusside 50mg powder and solvent for solution for infusion vials
Therapeutically similar medicines
Similarity is based on WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification and on a factual NHS dm+d therapeutic-grouping code prefix. Source data: NHS dm+d via TRUD (OGL v3.0), WHO ATC/DDD Index.
Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
NICE clinical guidance(1)
Source: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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Pharmacy links redirect to the retailer's own search and do not represent real-time stock levels. Shortage and safety information sourced from MHRA drug safety updates (gov.uk, Crown Copyright under OGL v3.0).
Codes for healthcare professionals and prescribing systems
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NHS UK identifiers
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SNOMED CT and dm+d codes from NHS TRUD (Technology Reference data Update Distribution), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. BNF code shown is the factual mapping value distributed by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) in the dm+d supplementary file under OGL v3.0; it is not affiliated with, nor licensed from, the publishers of the British National Formulary. ATC codes from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology (whocc.no).
Active and completed clinical studies from ClinicalTrials.gov
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Data accessed via ClinicalTrials.gov API v2. Trial information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Academic studies and reviews for this medicine's active substance
Showing the 50 most relevant studies.
Reviews & meta-analyses: 6 · Randomised trials: 4 · 1955–2026
Showing the 50 most relevant studies, sorted by most relevant.
Recchioni T, Manzi G, Caputo A, et al.
2026
Jaime E. C. Hallak, J. P. Maia-de-Oliveira, J. Abrão, et al.
JAMA psychiatry, 2013
Fei X, Li J, Wang S, et al.
2023
- Drugs, Chinese Herbal
- Medicine, Chinese Traditional
- Nitroprusside
ObjectiveSchizophrenia is a serious mental disease that brings not only serious burdens to patients and their families but also serious challenges to society. More research is needed to find better drugs to treat schizophrenia. This meta-analysis investigated the efficacy and safety of sodium nitroprusside in the treatment of schizophrenia.MethodsRandomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy and safety of sodium nitroprusside in the treatment of schizophrenia were searched via English and Chinese databases. The outcomes, including the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), were recorded. RevMan 5.3 was used for the meta-analysis.ResultsA total of six randomized controlled trials (174 patients) were included. The overall quality of the included studies was good. No statistically significant benefit of sodium nitroprusside over placebo was found when combined PANSS total and BPRS-18 (95% CI: -1.40, 0.02). Except for PANSS positive (95% CI: -1.86, -0.01), there was no significant difference in the scale score after sodium nitroprusside treatment compared with the control group in PANSS total (95% CI: -4.93, 0.23), PANSS general (95% CI: -2.53, 1.33), and PANSS negative (95% CI: -4.44, 0.89). The results of the sensitivity analysis excluding the study with clinical heterogeneity showed that sodium nitroprusside had no statistical benefit for the score of PANSS positive (95% CI: -2.19, 0.46). Moreover, there was also no significant difference in the BPRS-18 (95% CI: -3.23, -0.43).ConclusionWe conservatively believe that sodium nitroprusside does not alleviate the symptoms of schizophrenia compared with placebo. The subjects tolerated sodium nitroprusside well. Our findings provide a new idea for researchers to explore and solve the drug treatment of schizophrenia.
Abstract licence: CC BY
J. Rindone, Edward Sloane
Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 1992
N. Sass, C. Itamoto, Marina Pereira Silva, et al.
São Paulo Medical Journal, 2007
D. Hottinger, D. Beebe, Thomas Kozhimannil, et al.
Journal of Anaesthesiology, Clinical Pharmacology, 2014
Q. Ali, M. Daud, M. Z. Haider, et al.
Plant physiology and biochemistry : PPB, 2017
S. Katsuki, Arnold Wp, C. K. Mittal, et al.
Journal of cyclic nucleotide research, 1977
A. Boezaart, J. Merwe, A. Coetzee
Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia, 1995
W. Paulus, P. Vantrimpont, A. Shah
Circulation, 1994
Sources: aggregated from Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI), OpenAlex, Crossref, PubMed and other open scholarly databases. Retracted articles are excluded. Study information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Pharmacology and chemical data from DrugBank
Key facts
Drug status
Approved
Major interactions
9 found
Half-life
2 minutes
Mechanism
One molecule of sodium nitroprusside is metabolized by combination with hemoglob…
Food interactions
None known
Human targets
6 targets
Data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Pharmacokinetics at a glance
Half-life
2 minutes
Metabolism
Elimination
Pharmacokinetic data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Known interactions with other medications. Always consult a healthcare professional.
Showing 50 of 1258 interactions
Sodium nitroprusside is further broken down in the circulation to release nitric oxide (NO), which activates guanylate cyclase in the vascular smooth muscle. This leads to increased production of intracellular cGMP, which stimulates calcium ion movement from the cytoplasm to the endoplasmic reticulum, reducing the level of available calcium ions that can bind to calmodulin. This ultimately results in vascular smooth muscle relaxation and vessel dilation.
How the body processes this drug — absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination
Proteins and enzymes this drug interacts with in the body
PMID:39543315
Plays an essential role in the regulation of endothelial cell senescence and vascular aging .
PMID:36016499
Upon activation by ANP or BNP, stimulates the production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) that promotes vascular tone and volume homeostasis by activation of protein kinase cGMP-dependent 1/PRKG1 and subsequently PRKAA1, thereby controlling blood pressure and maintaining cardiovascular homeostasis PMID:36016499
PMID:32949214 PMID:37898605 PMID:8081734 PMID:8288584
1D-myo-inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate binds to the ligand-free channel without altering its global conformation, yielding the low-energy resting state, then progresses through resting-to preactivated transitions to the higher energy preactivated state, which increases affinity for calcium, promoting binding of the low basal cytosolic calcium at the juxtamembrane domain (JD) site, favoring the transition through the ensemble of high-energy intermediate states along the trajectory to the fully-open activated state .
PMID:30013099 PMID:35301323 PMID:37898605
Upon opening, releases calcium in the cytosol where it can bind to the low-affinity cytoplasmic domain (CD) site and stabilizes the inhibited state to terminate calcium release PMID:30013099 PMID:35301323 PMID:37898605
Enzymes involved in drug metabolism — important for understanding drug interactions
ATC C02DD01
Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
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Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
DrugBank citations
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ATC classifications (Wikidata)
Linked open data from Wikidata (Q420031), a free and open knowledge base operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Data is available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication.