Dosage of Haloperidol for Schizophrenia

Low dose typical antipsychotics – a brief evaluation

“…A similar study (Levinson et al, 1990) used three doses of fluphenazine (10 mg, 20 mg and 30 mg/day) and found that doses above 0.2 mg/kg were associated with clinical improvement and a high incidence of EPSE: the two outcomes could not be separated by dose. One further fixed-dose study (Rifkin et al, 1991) found haloperidol 10 mg/day to be just as effective as 30 mg/day and 80 mg/day, but no better tolerated.…”

Patterns of drug treatment of schizophrenic patients in Estonia, Spain and Sweden.

“…The scientific basis of this clinical tradition in psychiatry-interindividual genetic differences in the metabolism of neuroleptics-have been revealed in recent pharmacogenetic studies [22][23][24]. There is increasing evidence, that moderate doses of neuroleptics are as effective as, and presumably safer than high doses [11,25,26]. Similarly, no difference in the relapse rate and in the outcome of treatment with neuroleptics was revealed in long-term studies with various neuroleptics in doses between the equivalent of 100 and 2500 mg of chlorpromazine, or at doses above versus below 310 mg day-1 [10].…”

The Use of the EmotionalStroop Test to Establish the Onset and Efficacy of Antipsychotic Activity

“…Clearly discharge from hospital is one such target in the case of antipsychotic effects (as opposed to the immobilisation or sedation needed for behavioural control) but equally clearly, in the past individuals have been discharged from hospital on immobilizing doses of neuroleptic drugs rather than doses in what is now considered to be the optimally therapeutic range. Less than a decade ago doses 10-fold greater than those currently recommended were in common use (Baldessarini CCC OSSS-6222/96/OS0373-05 et al, 1988;Van Putten et al, 1990;Rifkind et al, 1991). A further possible target is to aim at selfreports from subjects as to whether the regime they are on is helpful (May et al, 1976).…”