Brannen 1981.

Methods	Randomisation: “randomly assigned”. Blinding: double‐blind. Duration: 28 days (after a drug free wash‐out period of at least three days). Design: parallel. Location: not indicated. Setting: inpatients.
Participants	Diagnosis: chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia (N = 21), paranoid schizophrenia (N = 18), acute schizophrenia (N = 3), schizoaffective (N = 3), hebephrenic schizophrenia (N = 2). Diagnoses according to Schneider`s first rank symptoms of schizophrenia and DSM‐II. N = 47. Gender: 23M, 24F. Age: mean 32 years. History: duration stable: not indicated, duration of illness: not indicated, number of previous hospitalisations: not indicated, age at onset: not indicated, severity of illness: not indicated, baseline antipsychotic dose: not indicated.
Interventions	1. Haloperidol: fixed/flexible dose: not indicated, dose range: 6 mg to 60 mg/day, mean final dose: 30.4 mg/day. N = 24. 2. Bromperidol: fixed/flexible dose: not indicated, dose range: 6 mg to 60 mg/day, mean final dose: 39.8 mg/day. N = 23.   “fixed‐changing dosage schedule…..until a minimum reduction of 30% from baseline occurred in the total score of the BPRS, at which point no further increase in dosage was required”. Rescue medication: antiparkinsonian drugs for the control of extrapyramidal symptoms. Flurazepam or chloral hydrate were allowed for nighttime sedation.
Outcomes	Examined: Clinically important response to treatment: Clinical Global Impressions (CGI). Mental state general: Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) (no SDs available). Leaving the study early due to any reason. Leaving the study early due to adverse effects. Adverse effects: akathisia, dystonia, rigor, hypotension. Unable to use: Behaviour: Nurses´ Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation (NOSIE) (no SDs available and no imputation method could be applied).
Notes	Study participants were 47 newly‐admitted schizophrenic patients. Each participant had “at least one of Schneider`s first rank symptoms of schizophrenia, and fulfilled criteria for a DSM‐II diagnosis of schizophrenia and had a minimum total score of 30 on the BPRS.”
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	“Randomly assigned”. No further details.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No further details.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) (performance bias)	Low risk	“Double‐blind”; “All investigational medications were prepared in identical‐appearing capsules.”
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) (detection bias)	Unclear risk	“Double‐blind”. No further details.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	The attrition was high: 7 of 24 participants (29.2%) in the haloperidol group left the trial early and 5 of 23 participants (21.7%) in the bromperidol‐group. The overall‐attrition was 25.5% (12 of 47 participants). The trial authors did not mention which analysis method they used regarding the continuous data.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	Outcome data were not fully reported (no SDs for the BPRS and NOSIE total score). Only the most prevalent adverse effects were reported. Data regarding the number of participants receiving rescue medication were missing.
Other bias	Unclear risk	Insufficient information to assess whether an important risk of bias exists.