Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Hospitals Have Given Antipsychotics To Delirious Patients For Decades, But New Study Finds Few Benefits
New research found no benefit from two antipsychotic drugs used by hospitals to treat delirium in critically ill patients, the latest study to call into question a common but unproven medical practice. Delirious intensive-care patients who were treated with the drugs haloperidol and ziprasidone didn鈥檛 emerge from their confusion any sooner than those given a placebo, according to the study published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Evans, 10/22)
"In some surveys up to 70 percent of patients [in the ICU] get these antipsychotics," says Dr. E. Wesley "Wes" Ely, an intensive care specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. They're prescribed by "very good doctors at extremely good medical centers," he says. "Millions of people worldwide are getting these drugs to treat their delirium. "But the drugs can have serious side effects. And Ely says there is no solid research showing that they are effective at treating delirium. (Harris, 10/22)
