Table 4.

Randomized trials about pharmacologic treatment for delirium

Author	Population	Size	Intervention	Results
Edward et al. 94	Delirious patients after hip fracture	16	Donepezil vs placebo	No differences regarding presence (odd ratio = 0.9) and severity (effect size = −0.2 on 30-point MDAS) over time.
Tagarakis et al. 95	Delirious patients after cardiac surgery	80	Ondasetron vs haloperidol	Effective with no differences between ondasetron (61%) and haloperidol (58%)
Tahir et al.96	General patients with diagnosed delirium	42	Quetiapine vs placebo	Quetiapine improved 83% (p = .026) faster than placebo by DRS-R-98 severity
van Eijk et al. 97	Delirious patients diagnosed in intensive care unit	104	Haloperidol rivastigmine	Rivastigmine increased mortality (22% vs 5%, p = 0.07) with no decrease duration of delirium
Devlin et al.98	Delirious patients diagnosed in	36	Quetiapine vs placebo	Quetiapine added to as-needed haloperidol results in faster resolution (1 vs 4.5 days, p = 0.001)
Kim et al.84	Delirious patients with mostly malignancy	32	Risperidone vs olanzapine	Equally effective (65% vs 73%) with no differences(p = 0.71)
Overshott et al. 99	Various patients with diagnosed delirium	15	Rivastigmine vs placebo	No difference in duration of delirium between two group(6.3 vs 9.9 days, p = 0.5)
Hu et al.100	Various patients with diagnosed delirium	175	Haloperidol vs olanzapine vs placebo	Effective rates of olanzapine, haloperidol and placebo were 82%, 88%, and 31% (p < 0.01 vs placebo), respectively
Breitbart et al. 101	Hospitalized AIDS patients with delirium	30	Haloperidol vs chlorpromazine vs lorazepam	DRS scores improved significantly in haloperidol and chlorpromazine (p < 0.001) but not in lorazepam
Grover et al.102	Various patients with delirium	64	Haloperidol vs olanzapine vs risperidone	Significant (p < 0.001) reduction in severity scores but no differences between agents
Han et al.103	Various patients with delirium	28	Haloperidol vs risperidone	No significant difference in the mean MDAS scores between the two groups (p = 0.51)

DRS, Delirium Rating Scale; DRS R-98, Delirium Rating Scale Revised; MDAS, Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale