Combined therapy with low-potency neuroleptic levomepromazine as an adjunct to haloperidol for agitated patients with acute exacerbation of schizophrenia.

The low-potency neuroleptic levomepromazine has been in common use for agitated patients with schizophrenia in Europe and Japan because of its markedly sedative property. We compared the efficacy of the combined therapy with levomepromazine and high-potency neuroleptic haloperidol with the monotherapy with haloperidol for patients with acute exacerbation of schizophrenia. Nineteen patients meeting the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia were recruited from among patients hospitalized for acute exacerbation of psychotic symptoms. All the patients had not been medicated before this trial. Written informed consent was obtained after the study was described fully to the patients and their guardians. This study was an 8-week, open-label trial. The patients were randomly assigned to monotherapy with haloperidol or combined therapy with haloperidol and levomepromazine. The monotherapy group consisted of 10 patients (four women and six men), while the combined therapy group consisted of nine patients (three women and six men). There was no group difference in gender distribution, age or duration of illness. This comparative study supports the usefulness of levomepromazine as an adjunct for the treatment of agitated patients with acute exacerbation of schizophrenia, which has already been experienced in clinical practice, although such polypharmacy has been criticized. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)