This is an important, and surprisingly under-researched, area. To date, use of droperidol for emergency situations has been justified by experience rather than evidence from well conducted and reported randomised trials, but, as world reserves diminish, droperidol will no longer be a treatment option.
Droperidol in acutely agitated patients. A double-blind placebo-controlled study.
Forty-one acutely agitated patients received an i.v. injection of 4 ml of a double blind solution containing either 10 mg of droperidol or placebo. The need for further medication (5 mg of haloperidol after 3 minutes or individually adapted psychotropics after 30 minutes) was used as a parameter for the evaluation of the results. Three minutes after the injection, haloperidol was needed by only six out of 19 patients of the droperidol group, but by 19 patients of the control group. Thirty minutes after the first injection, further medication was needed by only four droperidol patients and 10 placebo patients. No side effects could be attributed to the double blind medication.