Randomized Controlled Trial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Sep 22, 2016; 6(3): 365-371
Published online Sep 22, 2016. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v6.i3.365
Comparative effectiveness of quetiapine and haloperidol in delirium: A single blind randomized controlled study
Sandeep Grover, Sudhir Mahajan, Subho Chakrabarti, Ajit Avasthi
Sandeep Grover, Sudhir Mahajan, Subho Chakrabarti, Ajit Avasthi, Department of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this paper.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Institute Ethics Committee.
Informed consent statement: Proxy written informed consent was obtained from the primary caregivers of the patients who were staying with the patient during the hospitalization prior to randomization. The purpose of the study was explained to the caregivers. The caregivers were told about the currently available pharmacotherapy for management of delirium. The caregivers were explained about the commonly used pharmacological agents along with their efficacy and side effect profile. They were informed about the evidence available for quetiapine for management of delirium. The primary caregivers were informed that they could withdraw consent at any stage.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Data sharing statement: No.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Sandeep Grover, MD, Additional Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Cobalt Block, Nehru Hospital, Chandigarh 160012, India. drsandeepg2002@yahoo.com
Telephone: +91-172-2756807 Fax: +91-172-2744401
Received: May 17, 2016
Peer-review started: May 19, 2016
First decision: July 5, 2016
Revised: August 5, 2016
Accepted: August 27, 2016
Article in press: August 29, 2016
Published online: September 22, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: This Comparative study showed that quetiapine when used in the doses of 12.5-75 mg/d is as effective as haloperidol in the doses of 0.25-1.25 mg in management of delirium. The effectiveness of both the medications was similar in adult and elderly (≥ 60 years) patients. By 6th day, 37.5% patients in haloperidol group and 29.03% patients in the quetiapine group had Delirium Rating Scale-Revised-98 score of “0” with no significant difference between the two groups. Accordingly, this study suggests that quetiapine is as effective as haloperidol in the management of delirium.