Home ❯ Sedation

Sedation

How is sedation related to antipsychotics

Antipsychotics can have a sedative effect, which can impair a person’s ability to function normally, and interfere with one’s ability to actively participate in other treatments such as psychosocial training and rehabilitation. Not all antipsychotic medications have the same sedative effect, as differences in dosage and drug affinity for histamine receptors influence sedation levels.

What is the evidence for sedation?

Moderate quality evidence shows medium to large effects of more sedation with aripiprazole, lurasidone, risperidone, haloperidol, asenapine, olanzapine, quetiapine, and ziprasidone than placebo. Large effects were reported for chlorpromazine, zotepine and clozapine. Clozapine, quetiapine and zotepine were more sedating than haloperidol, and aripiprazole was less sedating than haloperidol. Compared with low-potency first generation antipsychotics, only clozapine was significantly more sedating. No differences were reported between placebo and amisulpride, paliperidone, sertindole, and iloperidone.

October 2020

Last updated at: 4:10 am, 15th October 2020
To view documentation related to this topic download the files below
Fact Sheet Technical Commentary

NeuRA Libraries

Title Colour Legend:
Green - Topic summary is available.
Orange - Topic summary is being compiled.
Red - Topic summary has no current systematic review available.