Comparison of Adjunctive Quetiapine Versus Adjunctive Haloperidol in Combination with Sodium Valproate for Treatment of Patients with Mania or Mixed Feature Bipolar I Disorder: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial Study

Acute mania causes many problems for the patient and others. Therefore, it is very important to eliminate the symptoms quickly.

The present study made the individual comparison of the therapeutic effects of sodium valproate combined with quetiapine or haloperidol as an add-on among patients with bipolar I disorder experiencing an episode of mania or mixed feature admitted to a Psychiatric Center in Tehran.

The present study was a double-blind clinical randomized trial conducted on 36 patients. All patients were investigated by the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS). The study lasted six weeks in total (after raising drug dosage to the maximum level). We prescribed sodium valproate 15 mg/kg plus quetiapine 500 mg daily in one group and sodium valproate 15 mg/kg plus haloperidol 10 mg daily in the other group. In addition, an equivalent dosage of quetiapine and haloperidol was prescribed. This study used different data analysis methods such as Paired t test, ANOVA, and chi-square test.

The YMRS scores did not show any statistically significant difference between quetiapine and haloperidol receiving groups (P > 0.05).

This paper argued that a combination of sodium valproate with either quetiapine or haloperidol could be effective in the management of acute mania or mixed bipolar I disorder to reduce the severity and duration of symptoms, although there was no statistically significant difference between the efficacy of these two pharmacological therapies.