Antipsychotics for the prevention and treatment of delirium

We found little or no evidence to determine the effect of antipsychotics on cognitive function, delirium severity, or caregiver burden. Second-generation antipsychotics may decrease delirium incidence in postoperative patients, but this evidence is limited and requires more study. We did not detect...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Neufeld, Karin
Corporate Authors: United States Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Rockville (MD) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US) September 2019, 2019
Series:Comparative effectiveness review
Online Access:
Collection: National Center for Biotechnology Information - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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100 1 |a Neufeld, Karin 
245 0 0 |a Antipsychotics for the prevention and treatment of delirium  |h Elektronische Ressource  |c prepared for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ; prepared by Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center ; investigators, Karin J. Neufeld, Dale M. Needham, Esther S. Oh, Lisa M. Wilson, Roozbeh Nikooie, Allen Zhang, Mounica Koneru, Amulya Balagani, Sriharsha Singu, Louay Aldabain, Karen A. Robinson 
260 |a Rockville (MD)  |b Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US)  |c September 2019, 2019 
300 |a 1 PDF file (various pagings)  |b illustrations 
505 0 |a Includes bibliographical references 
710 2 |a United States  |b Agency for Health Care Policy and Research 
710 2 |a Johns Hopkins University  |b Evidence-based Practice Center 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b NCBI  |a National Center for Biotechnology Information 
490 0 |a Comparative effectiveness review 
856 4 0 |u https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546180  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 610 
520 |a We found little or no evidence to determine the effect of antipsychotics on cognitive function, delirium severity, or caregiver burden. Second-generation antipsychotics may decrease delirium incidence in postoperative patients, but this evidence is limited and requires more study. We did not detect neurological harms associated with haloperidol or second-generation antipsychotics used for the prevention or treatment of delirium. However, cardiac effects tended to occur more frequently in those receiving antipsychotics. Future studies should include standardized, clinically meaningful measures of patient distress, subsequent memories of delirium, caregiver burden and distress, inappropriate continuation of antipsychotic therapy, and long-term cognitive and functional outcomes 
520 |a Two reviewers independently screened search results for eligibility, serially abstracted data, and independently assessed the risk of bias of the studies and graded the strength of evidence (SOE) for prespecified critical outcomes: delirium severity, cognitive functioning, length of stay in hospital, inappropriate continuation of antipsychotic drugs, falls, sedation, and caregiver burden/strain. RESULTS: We identified 14 RCTs and 1 observational study evaluating the use of antipsychotics in prevention of delirium. For the treatment of delirium, we identified 19 RCTs and 25 observational studies. Two RCTs were classified as both a prevention and treatment trial. In trials of the prevention of delirium across all populations, there was no difference in delirium incidence for haloperidol versus placebo (relative risk [RR], 0.94; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.77 to 1.16).  
520 |a OBJECTIVES: To assess benefits and harms of antipsychotics for the prevention and treatment of delirium in adult patient populations. DATA SOURCES: We searched PubMed(r), Embase(r), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL(r)), and PsycINFO(r) through March 2019. We also hand-searched the reference lists of included articles, relevant reviews, and delirium-specific bibliographic repositories. REVIEW METHODS: We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of antipsychotics that evaluated benefits or harms, and also observational studies that reported harms.  
520 |a Second-generation antipsychotics, compared with placebo, may decrease delirium incidence in postoperative patients at risk for delirium (RR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.26 to 0.50). Antipsychotics (both haloperidol and second-generation), compared to placebo, demonstrated no differences for length of stay in hospital (low SOE for second-generation antipsychotics and high SOE for haloperidol). We were unable to draw conclusions regarding the effect of antipsychotics on sedation, falls, and delirium severity (insufficient SOE). We found no studies evaluating cognitive functioning, inappropriate continuation of antipsychotic drugs, or caregiver burden/strain. For treatment of delirium, there was little to no difference in effect of haloperidol and second-generation antipsychotics compared with placebo for length of stay in hospital (moderate SOE) and sedation (low and moderate SOE, respectively) with insufficient or no evidence for cognitive functioning or delirium severity.  
520 |a Also, effects of second-generation antipsychotics were not significantly different compared with haloperidol for delirium severity (moderate SOE), cognitive functioning (low SOE), length of stay in hospital (moderate SOE), and sedation (moderate SOE). We found no studies reporting inappropriate continuation of antipsychotic drugs, falls, or caregiver burden/strain. We did not find statistically significant differences for haloperidol or second-generation antipsychotics in neurological harms, including extrapyramidal side effects and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. However, cardiac harms tended to occur more frequently with antipsychotics, specifically prolongation of QT interval with second-generation antipsychotics. CONCLUSIONS: Haloperidol or second-generation antipsychotics, compared to placebo, used for the prevention or treatment of delirium did not improve length of stay in hospital.