A double-blind randomized clinical trial of rapid tranquilization with i.m. clonazepam and i.m. haloperidol in agitated psychotic patients with manic symptoms.

Used a double-blind clinical trial to study the use of clonazepam (CL) vs haloperidol (HL) for the tranquilization of 16 adult psychotic patients with manic or manic-like symptoms who were on maintenance treatment. Ss were randomly assigned to 2 groups (n = 8) to receive intramuscular/ly (im) preparations of CL (1–2 mg) or HL (5–20 mg) at 0-, .5-, and 1.0-hr intervals. Both medications produced roughly comparable reductions of manic symptoms after 2 hrs as measured by improvement over baseline on scores on the Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale Mania Subscale and other clinical rating scales. HL provided beneficial results more rapidly than CL, with greater improvement after 1 hr. CL is thus an effective but slower acting treatment than HL for agitated psychotic patients in need of tranquilization. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)