Atypical antipsychotics for the treatment of delirious elders
Abstract
Delirium occurs frequently in hospitalized patients and is reported to occur at a rate of 10% to 40% in hospitalized elderly patients. The gold standard of treatment is to treat the underlying cause of delirium and use high-potency antipsychotics such as haloperidol to target the behavioral disturbances. Since the development of atypical antipsychotics, many psychiatric conditions that were previously only treatable using high-potency antipsychotics may now be managed with the atypical agents. This review will examine the current literature on atypical antipsychotics and summarize the results from published trials in order to evaluate the efficacy and potential benefits of atypical antipsychotics for the treatment of delirium in the elderly population. A search of the published literature was conducted using MEDLINE and PubMed. The PubMed search was limited to articles that were (1) written in the English language, (2) focused on human subjects above age 65, and (3) were in the format of review articles, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), clinical trials, or meta-analyses. The initial PubMed search was conducted in March 2006 with follow-up investigations in April 2006 and July 2007. Risperidone, the most thoroughly studied a...Continue Reading
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