MAIN RESULTS We have no good- quality evidence of the absolute effectiveness of haloperidol for people with long-term aggression .
When haloperidol was compared with olanzapine or clozapine , skewed data ( n=83 ) at high risk of bias suggested some advantage in terms of scale scores of unclear clinical meaning for olanzapine/clozapine for ' total aggression ' .
Although there were some data for the outcomes listed above , there were no data on most of the binary outcomes and none on service outcomes ( use of hospital/police ) , satisfaction with treatment , acceptance of treatment , quality of life or economics .
BACKGROUND Psychotic disorders can lead some people to become agitated .
Characterised by restlessness , excitability and irritability , this can result in verbal and physically aggressive behaviour - and both can be prolonged .
Aggression within the psychiatric setting imposes a significant challenge to clinicians and risk to service users ; it is a frequent cause for admission to inpatient facilities .
If people continue to be aggressive it can lengthen hospitalisation .
Haloperidol is used to treat people with long-term aggression .
OBJECTIVES To examine whether haloperidol alone , administered orally , intramuscularly or intravenously , is an effective treatment for long-term/persistent aggression in psychosis .
Neurocognitive effects of clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, and haloperidol in patients with chronic schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
OBJECTIVE Newer antipsychotic drugs have shown promise in ameliorating neurocognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia , but few studies have compared newer antipsychotic drugs with both clozapine and conventional agents , particularly in patients who have had suboptimal response to prior treatments . METHOD The authors examined the effects of clozapine , olanzapine , risperidone , and haloperidol on 16 measures of neurocognitive functioning in a double-blind , 14-week trial involving 101 patients . A global score was computed along with scores in four neurocognitive domains : memory , attention , motor function , and general executive and perceptual organization . RESULTS Global neurocognitive function improved with olanzapine and risperidone treatment , and these improvements were superior to those seen with haloperidol . Patients treated with olanzapine exhibited improvement in the general and attention domains but not more than that observed with other treatments . Patients treated with risperidone exhibited improvement in memory that was superior to that of both clozapine and haloperidol . Clozapine yielded improvement in motor function but not more than in other groups . Average effect sizes for change were in the small to medium range . More than half of the patients treated with olanzapine and risperidone experienced " clinical ly significant " improvement ( changes in score of at least one-half st and ard deviation relative to baseline ) . These findings did not appear to be mediated by changes in symptoms , side effects , or blood levels of medications . CONCLUSIONS Patients with a history of suboptimal response to conventional treatments may show cognitive benefits from newer antipsychotic drugs , and there may be differences between atypical antipsychotic drugs in their patterns of cognitive effects
MAIN RESULTS We have no good- quality evidence of the absolute effectiveness of haloperidol for people with long-term aggression .
When haloperidol was compared with olanzapine or clozapine , skewed data ( n=83 ) at high risk of bias suggested some advantage in terms of scale scores of unclear clinical meaning for olanzapine/clozapine for ' total aggression ' .
Although there were some data for the outcomes listed above , there were no data on most of the binary outcomes and none on service outcomes ( use of hospital/police ) , satisfaction with treatment , acceptance of treatment , quality of life or economics .
BACKGROUND Psychotic disorders can lead some people to become agitated .
Characterised by restlessness , excitability and irritability , this can result in verbal and physically aggressive behaviour - and both can be prolonged .
Aggression within the psychiatric setting imposes a significant challenge to clinicians and risk to service users ; it is a frequent cause for admission to inpatient facilities .
If people continue to be aggressive it can lengthen hospitalisation .
Haloperidol is used to treat people with long-term aggression .
OBJECTIVES To examine whether haloperidol alone , administered orally , intramuscularly or intravenously , is an effective treatment for long-term/persistent aggression in psychosis .