COMPARISON OF THE EFFECT OF QUETIAPINE WITH HALOPERIDOL IN TREATMENT OF DELIRIUM IN ICU PATIENTS

Introduction: Delirium is a relatively common disorder in ill patients. Haloperidol, a first-generation antipsychotic, is known to be the main treatment, but it has extrapyramidal side effects, whereas quetiapine is a second-generation antipsychotic and lacks these effects. In a recent study, we compared the effects of quetiapine with haloperidol in the treatment of delirium symptoms. Materials and methods: This study was a clinical trial performed on patients with delirium. Patients were randomly divided into two groups, one group receiving haloperidol 2.5 mg daily and the other group receiving 25 mg daily quetiapine. Sedation status of patients was determined based on RASS scoring criteria and disease severity according to APACHE II criteria and finally data were analyzed by SPSS 20 software. Results: The mean age of patients in quetiapine and haloperidol group was 59.83 with standard deviation of 16.51 and 64.90 with standard deviation of 21.34 years (p-value = 0.308). The ratio of male to female in the quetiapine and haloperidol group was 19 to 11 and 21 to 9, respectively (p-value = 0.392). Patients in quetiapine group had significantly better RASS and disease severity than patients in haloperidol group (p-value = 0.001). Conclusion: According to the results, it is concluded that the use of quetiapine can not only be effective in improving sedation status and severity of disease in patients with delirium, but also better than haloperidol.