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droperidol (Dridol / Xomolix)

✓ Approved

Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. · DRD2 · Small Molecule

What is droperidol?

droperidol is a small molecule developed by Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.. It is approved for therapeutic indications via injectable (others) or intravenous (iv).

Drug Profile

Brand NamesDridol, Xomolix
CompanyKyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.
Drug ClassSmall Molecule
Molecular TargetDRD2
RouteInjectable (Others), Intravenous (IV)
StatusApproved
Sources: ClinicalTrials.gov, Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.

Mechanism of Action

Molecular Targets

droperidol acts on 1 molecular target:

DRD2dopamine receptor D2 (D2DR, D2R)
Want deeper analysis?Noah AI can explain complex mechanisms and compare to similar drugs.

Therapeutic Indications

droperidol is developed for 1 unique indication across 1 therapeutic area.

Therapeutic AreaConditionPhase
Surgical and medical proceduresProphylaxis of nausea and vomiting✓ Approved

Related Research Articles

PubMedAcademic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine2026-11-05

Comparative Effectiveness of Haloperidol, Droperidol, and Ondansetron for Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome in the Emergency Department.

O'Brien Joseph J, Patel Mayher M, Brown Joseph J, Tucker Ryan R et al.

Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) is an increasingly frequent emergency department (ED) presentation. Although ondansetron is commonly used, emerging evidence suggests haloperidol and droperidol may provide more effective symptom control. Robust comparative effectiveness data, particularly regarding short-term ED recidivism, remain limited. We conducted a multicenter retrospective cohort study using the TriNetX Research Network from 2014 to 2024. Adults presenting to the ED with vomiting-related and cannabis-related ICD-10 diagnoses who received haloperidol, droperidol, or ondansetron during the index encounter were included. Patients with alternative causes of vomiting or major confounding conditions were excluded. Propensity-score matching was performed for three pairwise comparisons: haloperidol versus ondansetron, droperidol versus ondansetron, and droperidol versus haloperidol. The primary outcome was 72-h ED recidivism. Secondary outcomes included 72-h hospital admission, 7-day ED recidivism, and coded adverse events. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards modeling evaluated independent predictors of 72-h ED recidivism. After matching, haloperidol was associated with lower 72-h ED recidivism compared with ondansetron (8.2% vs. 15.1%; OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.41-0.62; p < 0.0001). Droperidol was also associated with lower 72-h ED recidivism compared with ondansetron (7.4% vs. 14.0%; OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.32-0.76; p = 0.0014). Droperidol and haloperidol did not differ significantly in 72-h ED recidivism (7.5% vs. 9.8%; OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.47-1.20; p = 0.23). In the multivariable model, haloperidol (HR 0.62, 95% CI 0.49-0.79) and droperidol (HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.56-0.83) were independently associated with lower return risk, whereas ondansetron was not. Coded adverse events were rare across all groups. In this large multicenter cohort, haloperidol and droperidol were associated with lower short-term ED recidivism than ondansetron among adults meeting a suspected CHS phenotype. These findings support prospective studies evaluating haloperidol and droperidol for ED management of CHS, including optimal dosing, route, medication sequencing, discharge treatment, and safety monitoring.

PMID 42983225
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PubMedBMC anesthesiology2026-10-20

Comparison of dexmedetomidine and droperidol-fentanyl for asleep-awake-asleep techniques in awake craniotomy anesthesia: a randomized controlled study.

Yang Xiaomei X, Qu Dongdong D, Ren Yiyan Y, Guo Yaqiu Y et al.

In this study, we aimed to compare dexmedetomidine with droperidol-fentanyl during the intraoperative awakening phase of awake craniotomy (AC), focusing on wake-up time. We conducted a single-center randomized controlled trial in China from January 2018 to December 2018. Patients aged 36-60 years, with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I-II, scheduled for brain glioma resection, were screened for eligibility; 61 were randomized, and 60 were included in the final analysis. The patients were randomized to either the dexmedetomidine group (intravenous loading dose of dexmedetomidine 0.5 µg·kg- 1 after discontinuation of propofol and remifentanil, followed by a maintenance infusion of dexmedetomidine 0.3-0.5 µg·kg- 1·h- 1) or the droperidol-fentanyl group (intravenous loading doses of fentanyl 2 µg·kg- 1 and droperidol 5 mg after discontinuation of propofol and remifentanil, followed by continuous maintenance infusions of fentanyl 2 µg·kg- 1·h- 1 and droperidol 0.1 mg·kg- 1·h- 1). A wake-up assessment was performed during maintenance of the assigned study regimen. The primary outcome measure was wake-up time. Secondary outcomes included the Observer's Assessment of Alertness/Sedation (OAA/S) scale, Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), eloquent brain area mapping status, vital signs, and adverse events. Baseline characteristics were comparable between the groups. Compared with the droperidol-fentanyl group, the dexmedetomidine group had lower mean arterial pressure at T4-T7, lower heart rate at T1-T4 and T7, and a shorter wake-up time, with a between-group difference of 3.5 min (95% CI, 1.95 to 5.05; P < 0.001). No statistically significant differences were detected in OAA/S scores at wake-up (T2), NRS scores, eloquent area mapping status, or adverse events between the groups. No statistically significant differences were detected in OAA/S scores at wake-up or intraoperative brain mapping performance between the two groups. The dexmedetomidine regimen was associated with a shorter measured wake-up time. The Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1800014329) was retrospectively registered on 6 January 2018.

PMID 42897460
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PubMedClinical neuropharmacology2026-09-24

Cytotoxic Lesion of the Corpus Callosum After Hospital-Administered Intravenous Fentanyl for Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Case Report and Focused Review.

Benito-León Julián J

Fentanyl-associated neurotoxicity is increasingly recognized across illicit, inhalational, transdermal, pediatric, and delayed posthypoxic exposures, but isolated splenial CLOCC after hospital-administered intravenous fentanyl has not been well characterized. This is a single-patient case report with a focused review of fentanyl-associated neurotoxic syndromes and proposed mechanisms. A 41-year-old woman with trigeminal neuralgia presented with severe facial pain. After droperidol, metoclopramide, and metamizole failed to control symptoms, intravenous fentanyl (75 μg) was administered. Soon afterward, she developed dizziness, nausea, vomiting, left-sided paresthesias, hypoesthesia, and mild weakness. Initial computed tomography was unrevealing, and cerebrospinal fluid findings were normal. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) obtained 8 days later showed a 6-mm midline splenial lesion that was hyperintense on T2-weighted and FLAIR sequences, restricted on diffusion-weighted imaging, and nonenhancing, consistent with CLOCC. Follow-up MRI showed complete radiologic resolution, but serial assessments documented persistent deficits in the left upper and lower extremities, including impaired fine motor control, dysdiadochokinesia, arm and leg weakness, foot drag, and gait imbalance; somatosensory-evoked potentials showed mild dysfunction of the left lower-extremity pathway. Review of comparable fentanyl-associated cases shows a spectrum ranging from isolated callosal injury to diffuse, cerebellar, and delayed leukoencephalopathic phenotypes. This case expands the neuroimaging spectrum of fentanyl-associated brain injury and supports a toxic-metabolic pathogenesis in which splenial CLOCC may represent a focal manifestation of broader opioid-related white-matter vulnerability.

PMID 42784751
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PubMedMethods and protocols2026-09-23

Comparison of the Utility of Amplitude-Spectral and Coherence Features of Psychotropic Drugs' Action on ECoG Signal for Pharmaco-EEG Based Drug Screening in Rats.

Sysoev Yuriy I YI, Kurmazov Nikita S NS, Shitc Darya D DD, Okovityi Sergey V SV

A naive Bayesian classifier (NBC) combined with principal component analysis (PCA) effectively differentiates the dose-dependent effects of certain groups of psychoactive drugs based on their impact on the amplitude-spectral characteristics of electrocorticograms (ECoG) in rats. This approach has been shown to be useful for pharmacological screening of agents with unknown or poorly understood activity. Despite previously obtained optimistic results, classification determination for some drugs was inaccurate, necessitating the search for possible ways to improve the predictive effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. One possible approach would be to use as input quantitative data not only the impact of the psychoactive drugs studied on the amplitude-spectral characteristics of ECoG but also connectivity changes, including the average coherence power of different pairs of leads. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of NBC in classifying the pharmacological mechanism of action of agents with well-known mechanisms (test set) using pharmaco-EEG data on changes in the amplitude-spectral characteristics of ECoG, coherence, and the combined use of two data sets. Materials and methods. Experiments were performed on Wistar rats with chronically implanted ECoG electrodes. The training set, relative to which the effects of the pharmacological agents from the test set were classified, were the matrices of effects of 12 pharmacological agents: the NMDA antagonist dizocilpine, the D2/D3 antagonists haloperidol and sulpiride, the M-anticholinergic tropicamide, the H1/5HT2A receptor blocker hydroxyzine, the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor galantamine, the alpha-2 adrenergic agonist dexmedetomidine, the alpha-2 adrenergic antagonist atipamezole, the adenosine receptor blocker caffeine and the GABA-mimetics aminophenylbutyric acid (phenibut), bromdihydrochlorophenylbenzodiazepine (phenazepam) and 5-ethyl-5-phenyl-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-pyrimidinetrione. The test set included various drugs with tropism for the targets of the training set drugs: dopamine receptor antagonists chlorpromazine, droperidol, tiapride and raclopride, H1-histamine blockers diphenhydramine and promethazine, 5-HT2-receptor blockers ritanserin and glemenserin, acetylcholinesterase inhibitor ipidacrine, alpha2-adrenergic receptor antagonist yohimbine, alpha2-adrenergic agonists medetomidine and xylazine, GABA-mimetics 5-ethyl-5-(1-methylbutyl)-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-pyrimidinetrione and chloral hydrate. The analysis of the ECoG signal included the calculation of 132 amplitude-spectral characteristics and 75 coherence indicators, which, using the PCA, led to new integrative indicators used for further classification of the NBC. Results and discussion. For each drug in the test set, the median similarity probability with a particular group from the training set was calculated, which was used to assess the classification quality. It was found that, when using the amplitude-spectral characteristics of ECoG, the proposed methodological approach allows for the identification of the ECoG effects of several groups of psychoactive drugs, including D2/D3-dopamine, M-cholinergic, H1-histamine, and 5-HT2-serotonin receptor blockers, AChE inhibitors, GABA-mimetics, and alpha-2-adrenergic receptor agonists and antagonists. This approach enabled the correct classification of 18 of 24 groups in the test set. When using changes in coherence indices as the initial data, the classification accuracy also amounted to 18 of 24 groups. When combining the two data sets, the number of correctly identified NBC groups was 20 of 24 groups. When comparing the classification during training (confusion matrix), it was found that coherence data or adding coherence data to the data based on changes in amplitude-spectral characteristics leads to a statistically significant (p < 0.01 in both cases) increase in accuracy. Conclusions. The obtained data demonstrated high accuracy in classifying the pharmacological activity of the test sample drugs using any of the three compared approaches. Despite the lack of statistically significant differences between them, classification based on the combined dataset demonstrated a higher number of "correct" similarities. This allows us to recommend the approach based on combined data of drug effects on amplitude-spectral characteristics and coherence as the most promising for further studies using pharmaco-EEG screening.

PMID 42776676
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PubMedThe American journal of emergency medicine2026-09-13

QTc interval changes following low-dose droperidol administration in the emergency department.

Bartoe Aaron A, Berkvens Laura L, Solano Aimee A, Hacnik Justin J et al.

PMID 42731911
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PubMedAnnals of medicine and surgery (2012)2026-09-11

Addition of lidocaine to prophylactic ondansetron and dexamethasone in high-risk adults for postoperative nausea and vomiting: a randomized, controlled, double-blinded study.

Yi Ke-Xin KX, Du Ming-Cheng MC, Zheng Jia J, Long Xiang X et al.

A triple combination of dexamethasone, ondansetron, and droperidol is recommended as prophylaxis to prevent postoperative nausea and vomiting in high-risk patients. However, the administration of droperidol is controversial owing to its fatal side effects. Considering the antiemetic effect of lidocaine, the aim of this study was to determine if its incorporation could mitigate postoperative nausea and vomiting in adults at high risk. This randomized, controlled, double-blind study was conducted from 10 June 2023 to 31 October 2023. Based on a preliminary experiment, 260 patients were enrolled in the trial, with 130 in group C (saline) and 130 in group L (lidocaine). The primary outcome was the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting at 24 hours postoperatively. The secondary outcomes were the Quality of Recovery-40 (QoR-40) score at 24 hours postoperatively and the time to extubation. Adverse events that occurred during the study were recorded. The incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting differed between the groups, with 26.6% (33 patients) in group C and 16.4% (21 patients) in group L (P = 0.0484). The QoR-40 score was 176.45 ± 10.87 in group C and 186.59 ± 9.79 in group L (P < 0.001). No adverse events were observed during the trial. In high-risk patients, the addition of lidocaine to ondansetron and dexamethasone effectively reduced the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting and improved the quality of recovery.

PMID 42725260
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