No results are conclusive and all are based on small, short, studies. It would be understandable, however, if clinicians were cautious in prescribing doses in excess of 7.5 mg/day of haloperidol to a person with uncomplicated acute schizophrenia, and if people with schizophrenia were equally reticent to take greater doses. Further research is needed regarding the efficacy and tolerability of the >1.5-3.0 mg/day dose range.
Rapid treatment of acute psychotic symptoms with high- and low-dose haloperidol. Behavioral considerations.
Twenty acutely psychotic male psychiatric inpatients were assigned to two groups and treated with high- and low-dose haloperidol using a rapid neuroleptization technique. A six-day maintenance phase followed. Both groups improved at one hour, one day, and seven days after starting treatment, and neither group differed as to degree or rapidity of symptom alleviation. Therefore, the results of the study do not give experimental support for the administration of high doses of haloperidol to young, acutely psychotic inpatients with relatively good prognoses.