Use of intramuscular ziprasidone for the control of acute psychosis or agitation in an inpatient geriatric population: an open-label study.

Objective. This open-label study examined the safety and efficacy of ziprasidone intramuscular with geriatric patients experiencing psychosis or agitation.Design. During an inpatient stay, consenting subjects who became acutely psychotic or agitated received ziprasidone intramuscular 10mg q 6 to 8 hours, up to a maximum dose of 20mg/24 hours. A within-group repeated measures design was employed to study whether the use of ziprasidone over the 24-hour observation period contributed to decreased agitation or to extrapyramidal side effects. The data were analyzed using an Analysis of Variance with trend analysis.Setting. The study was conducted on the geriatric psychiatry inpatient unit at the University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, Ohio.Participants. Fourteen patients, six men and eight women with mean age 77+/-8 years, participated in this study. Each patient had a diagnosis of dementia, co-occurring with one of the following: delirium, major depressive disorder with psychotic features, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or schizoaffective disorder.Measurements. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Delirium Rating Scale, and the Behavioral Activity Rating Scale were obtained at baseline and at 0.5, 2, and 24 hours after the first dose of ziprasidone intramuscular.Results. Overall, physiologic measures that would indicate undesirable side effects, including QTc intervals, remained unchanged pre- and post-study. However, there were significant improvements in scores on a variety of measures assessing agitation or psychosis.Conclusion. This study suggests that ziprasidone intramuscular may be a safe and effective short-term treatment for agitated or psychotic geriatric patients, and, therefore, additional studies should be conducted to confirm these findings.