Tetrabenazine 10mg/5ml oral suspension
Requires a prescription from a doctor or prescriber
A drug formerly used as an antipsychotic but now used primarily in the symptomatic treatment of various hyperkinetic disorders.
Official documents, adverse reaction reporting, and safety monitoring
Report a side effect
Submit a Yellow Card report to the MHRA
Official medicine documents
Safety monitoring data
Yellow Card reports
The MHRA Yellow Card scheme collects reports of suspected side effects from healthcare professionals and patients. View the Drug Analysis Profile (iDAP) for real-world adverse reaction data.
View Drug Analysis Profile
Suspected adverse reactions reported for Tetrabenazine
Browse all iDAP reports
Interactive Drug Analysis Profiles for all medicines
Report a side effect
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.
EudraVigilance
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) collects suspected adverse reaction reports from across the EU/EEA through the EudraVigilance system. Search for safety data on this medicine.
View EudraVigilance report
Suspected adverse reactions reported for Tetrabenazine
About EudraVigilance
Learn about EU pharmacovigilance and safety monitoring
EudraVigilance data is published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). A suspected adverse reaction is not necessarily caused by the medicine.
1 branded products available
WHO defined daily dose (DDD)
100 mg
Not a recommended dose. The DDD is the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults. It is a statistical measure used for research and comparison purposes only.
Source: WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology, distributed via NHS dm+d BNF mapping files. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Therapeutically similar medicines
Similarity based on WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification and NHS BNF section grouping. Source data: NHS dm+d via TRUD (OGL v3.0), WHO ATC/DDD Index.
NHS prescribing volume and spending trends
Clinical guidelines and formulary information
British National Formulary
Tetrabenazine
Source: British National Formulary, NICE. Joint Formulary Committee. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Check stock at pharmacies and supply information
Pharmacy stock checkers
Search for this medicine at major UK pharmacy chains. These links open the retailer's own website — results depend on their current online catalogue.
Supply & product information
Official product databases and supply status monitoring
Pharmacy links redirect to the retailer's own search and do not represent real-time stock levels. emc (electronic medicines compendium) is operated by Datapharm Ltd. Shortage information sourced from NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS), sps.nhs.uk.
Codes for healthcare professionals and prescribing systems
These codes are used by healthcare IT systems and prescribers to identify this medicine.
NHS UK identifiers
Browse tools
SNOMED CT and dm+d codes from NHS TRUD (Technology Reference data Update Distribution), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. BNF codes from NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). 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.
Pharmacology and chemical data from DrugBank
Key facts
Drug status
Approved
Major interactions
None known
Half-life
10 hours
Mechanism
Tetrabenazine is a reversible human vesicular monoamine transporter type 2 inhibitor (Ki = 100 nM).
Food interactions
2 warnings
Human targets
2 targets
Data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Pharmacokinetics at a glance
Absorption
75%
Half-life
10 hours
[A39004]…
Protein binding
82 - 88%
α-HTBZ = 60 - 68%;
β-HTBZ = 59 - 63%.
Volume of distribution
385L
Metabolism
2 hours
Elimination
75%
Clearance
1.67 L
Pharmacokinetic data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Known interactions with other medications. Always consult a healthcare professional.
Showing 50 of 793 interactions
LD50 oral, mouse: 550 mg/kg
How the body processes this drug — absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination
Cmax, oral = 4.8 ng/mL in HD or tardive dyskinesia patients;
Tmax, oral = 69 min in HD or tardive dyskinesia patients
[A39004]
The elimination half-life of tetrabenazine was 10 hours following intravenous bolus administration.
[A251120]
The oral half-lives of its metabolites, α-HTBZ, β-HTBZ and 9-desmethyl-β-DHTBZ, are seven hours, five hours and 12 hours, respectively.
[L42565]
Following a single oral dose of 25 mg tetrabenazine, the elimination half-life was approximately 17.5 hours in subjects with hepatic impairment.
[L42565]
α-HTBZ = 60 - 68%;
β-HTBZ = 59 - 63%.
Tetrabenazine is rapidly distributed to the brain following IV injection. The site with the highest binding is the striatum, while the lowest binding was observed in the cortex.
Urinary excretion of α-HTBZ or β-HTBZ (the major metabolites) accounted for less than 10% of the administered dose.
Proteins and enzymes this drug interacts with in the body
PMID:23363473 PMID:37914936 PMID:38081299 PMID:38517752 PMID:8643547
Regulates the transvesicular monoaminergic gradient that determines the quantal size.
Mediates somatodendritic dopamine release in hippocampal neurons, likely as part of a regulated secretory pathway that integrates retrograde synaptic signals (By similarity). Acts as a primary transporter for striatal dopamine loading ensuring impulse-dependent release of dopamine at the synaptic cleft (By similarity). Responsible for histamine and serotonin storage and subsequent corelease from mast cell granules PMID:8860238
PMID:21645528
Positively regulates postnatal regression of retinal hyaloid vessels via suppression of VEGFR2/KDR activity, downstream of OPN5 (By similarity)
Enzymes involved in drug metabolism — important for understanding drug interactions
ATC N07XX06
Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
Show
Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
Linked compound data from DrugBank Open Data (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Tetrabenazine
Additional database identifiers
Drugs Product Database (DPD)
109
ChemSpider
5796
BindingDB
50017701
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:10935
GenAtlas
SLC18A2
GeneCards
SLC18A2
GenBank Gene Database
L09118
GenBank Protein Database
292335
Guide to Pharmacology
1012
UniProt Accession
VMAT2_HUMAN
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:3023
GenAtlas
DRD2
GeneCards
DRD2
GenBank Gene Database
M30625
GenBank Protein Database
181432
Guide to Pharmacology
215
UniProt Accession
DRD2_HUMAN
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:1548
GenAtlas
CBR1
GeneCards
CBR1
GenBank Gene Database
J04056
Guide to Pharmacology
1383
UniProt Accession
CBR1_HUMAN
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:2625
GenAtlas
CYP2D6
GeneCards
CYP2D6
GenBank Gene Database
M20403
GenBank Protein Database
181350
Guide to Pharmacology
1329
UniProt Accession
CP2D6_HUMAN
International reference pricing
Reference pricing from DrugBank. Prices are indicative and may not reflect current UK costs.
Source: DrugBank. Used under CC BY-NC 4.0 academic licence for non-commercial purposes.
DrugBank citations
If you use DrugBank data in your research, please cite the following publications: