A prospective random control study:comparison of olanzapine and haloperidol in senile delirium

Objective To compare the efficacy and safety of typical antipsychotic agent olanzapine with typical antipsychotic agent haloperidol in senile delirium.Methods One hundred and seventy five cases of patients with delirium were randomly divided into olanzapine treatment group( n =74),haloperidol treatment group( n =72) and a control group( n =29).They were prospectively observed and treated for a week,assessed with Delirium Rating Scale (DRS),Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI),Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale (TESS) and Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale (ESRS).Results (1)CGI SI scores of olanzapine treatment group,haloperidol treatment group and a control group were reduced significantly after treatment ( P 0.01).(2) The effective rate of each group was 82.4%,87.5% and 31% respectively.The effective rate of treatment groups and control group had significant difference ( P 0.01).(3) Both olanzapine and haloperidol were effective at low doses.Among three groups,olanzapine was the earliest on response time,haloperidol was the second,and the control was the last.(4)Drowsiness is a common side effect of olanzapine.Its incidence rate had no significant difference comparing with the haloperidol ( P 0.05).The incidence rates of dry mouth and extrapyramidal symptoms in haloperidol group were higher than that in olanzapine,which had significant difference( P 0.01).Conclusion Olanzapine and haloperidol had similar effects on senile delirium.However,olanzapine effected more rapidly and had fewer side effects.