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Haloperidol

What is haloperidol?

The treatment of bipolar disorder is complex due to the presence of varying configurations of symptoms in patients. The primary treatments for bipolar disorder are pharmacological, and often involve antipsychotic drugs such as the first-generation antipsychotic haloperidol.

What is the evidence for haloperidol for bipolar disorder?

Moderate quality evidence suggests medium-sized effects of greater improvement in acute mania symptoms with haloperidol than with placebo, topiramate, or lamotrigine, although there was more improvement with tamoxefin than with haloperidol. There was more all-cause discontinuation with haloperidol than with olanzapine, and less all-cause discontinuation with haloperidol than with topiramate.

Moderate to low quality evidence suggests no significant differences in rates of switching to depression between haloperidol and aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, or ziprasidone. There were also no consistent differences in rates of somnolence between haloperidol and placebo, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, or ziprasidone.

November 2021

Image: ©Leonid Andronov – stock.adobe.com

Last updated at: 11:34 am, 1st December 2021
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Title Colour Legend:
Green - Topic summary is available.
Orange - Topic summary is being compiled.
Red - Topic summary has no current systematic review available.