Inpharma 1275 - 17 Feb 2001

Ziprasidone superior to haloperidolin acute psychosis

IM ziprasidone ‘is significantly more effective’ thanhaloperidol in patients with acute psychosis, reportresearchers from the multinational Ziprasidone I.M.Study Group.

In this open-label study, 132 such patients wererandomised to receive IM ziprasidone (n = 90) or IMhaloperidol for up to 3 days, followed by oral therapyuntil day 7.*;†

During IM treatment, significantly greater meanreductions from baseline in total Brief Psychiatric RatingScale (BPRS) scores (–6.24 vs –3.18), BPRS agitationitem scores (–1.93 vs –0.8) and Clinical GlobalImpression Severity scale scores (–0.49 vs –0.15)occurred in ziprasidone, compared with haloperidol,recipients.

Patients in both treatment groups had furtherreductions in scale scores after switching to oraltherapy; the reductions favoured ziprasidone recipients.

The researchers say that ‘patients can be easilyswitched to oral ziprasidone or haloperidol treatmentwithout an exacerbation of symptoms’. They add thatziprasidone ‘appears to have a notably lower propensityfor inducing movement disorders than does haloperidol’.* The study was supported by Pfizer Inc.† The maximum allowable dosage of IM ziprasidone was 80 mg/day.The oral ziprasidone dosage ranged from 80 to 200 mg/day. Themaximum allowable dosage of IM haloperidol was 40 mg/day. The oralhaloperidol dosage ranged from 10 to 80 mg/day.

Brook S, et al. Intramuscular ziprasidone compared with intramuscular haloperidolin the treatment of acute psychosis. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 61: 933-941,Dec 2000 800859802

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Inpharma 17 Feb 2001 No. 12751173-8324/10/1275-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved