[Zuclopenthixol acetate and haloperidol in acute psychoses. Results of the AMDP subgroup in a multicenter Belgian...

The efficacy of i.m. cis(Z)-clopenthixol in aggressive, agitated and delusional patients is well established but it necessitates, as for all other parenteral neuroleptics, several injections daily. Zuclopenthixol acetate is the first injectable neuroleptic characterized simultaneously by a short latency of action (2-3 h) and by a long duration of action (2-3 days). Within the frame of a Belgian multicentre study of zuclopenthixol acetate and haloperidol, a group of French-speaking psychiatrists added the AMDP scales to the basic protocol. The results of this AMDP subsample of 20 Acetate vs. 13 Haloperidol patients do not allow the demonstration of statistically significant differences between both neuroleptics because of the smallness and unbalance of the sample, but they indicate that both antipsychotics are very active and that a comprehensive rating scale such as the AMDP gives a much better differentiated clinical picture of a new drug than the total scores of short, so-called "economical" rating scales.