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Indian Journal of Psychiatry logoLink to Indian Journal of Psychiatry
. 1997 Apr-Jun;39(2):136–142.

TREATMENT OF ACUTE AND TRANSIENT PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS WITH LOW AND HIGH DOSES OF ORAL HALOPERIDOL

Apurv Khanna *, Narottam Lal †, PK Dalal ‡, Abdul Khalid §, JK Trivedi *,*
PMCID: PMC2967098  PMID: 21584060

Abstract

The apparent rationale for the popular use of high doses of neuroleptics in psychotic patients is to increase the degree and speed of therapeutic response .However, several recent reports have questioned these claims. The present study was undertaken with the aim to compare the efficacy of high and low oral doses of haloperidol in the treatment of acute and transient psychotic disorders. The sample comprised of forty patients of both sexes diagnosed as acute and transient psychotic disorder who were randomly assigned to high dose (20 mg/day) and low dose (5 mg /day) haloperidol groups with equal number of subjects (n=20) in both groups. Weekly assessment was done on Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and Haloperidol Side-effects Check List (day 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 & 42). Both groups showed significant improvement in BPRS from baseline scores on all assessments. Comparison of the improvement rate in both study groups revealed no significant difference.

Keywords: Oral haloperidol, low dose, high dose, acute and transient psychotic disorders

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Selected References

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