Quetiapine not beneficial for delirium prevention in older patients: Study

Written By : Medha Baranwal |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2021-04-13T09:00:25+05:30 | Updated On 13 April 2021 9:19 AM IST

Thailand: Quetiapine is not beneficial for delirium prevention in hospitalized older medical patients, finds a recent study in the journal BMC Geriatrics. According to the study, quetiapine prophylaxis did not reduce delirium incidence in this population group.

Delirium is a common disorder among hospitalized older patients and results in increased mortality and morbidity. Delirium prevention is challenging in older patient care. Antipsychotics' role in the prevention of delirium is limited. Taweevat Assavapokee, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, and colleagues, therefore, conducted a trial to investigate the efficacy of quetiapine use to prevent delirium in hospitalized older medical patients.

For the purpose, the researchers conducted a randomized double-blind controlled trial at Ramathibodi Hospital, Bangkok. It enrolled 122 patients aged ≥65 years hospitalized in the internal medicine service. Patients were randomized to receive quetiapine 12.5 mg (n=57) or placebo (n=57) once daily at bedtime for a maximum 7-day duration.

The primary endpoint was delirium incidence. Secondary endpoints were delirium duration, length of hospital stay, ICU admission, rehospitalization, and mortality within 30 and 90 days.

Key findings of the study include:

The delirium incidence rates in the quetiapine and placebo groups were 14.0 and 8.8% (OR = 1.698), respectively.
Other endpoints in the quetiapine and placebo groups were the median length of hospital stay, 6 days versus 5 days, respectively; delirium duration, 4 versus 3 days, respectively; ICU admission, 3 (5.3%) patients from both groups; and mortality in the quetiapine and placebo groups, 1 (1.8%) versus 2 (3.5%) at 30 days and 7 (12.3%) versus 9 (15.8%) days at 90 days.
There were no significant differences in other outcomes.
None of the participants reported adverse events.

"Quetiapine prophylaxis did not reduce delirium incidence in hospitalized older medical patients," wrote the authors. "The use of quetiapine to prevent delirium in this population group should not be recommended."

Reference:

The study titled, "Efficacy of quetiapine for delirium prevention in hospitalized older medical patients: a randomized double-blind controlled trial," is published in the journal BMC Geriatrics.

DOI: https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-021-02160-7#Sec16

BMC Geriatricsquetiapinedelirium

Source : BMC Geriatrics

Medha Baranwal

MSc. Biotechnology

Medha Baranwal joined Medical Dialogues as an Editor in 2018 for Speciality Medical Dialogues. She covers several medical specialties including Cardiac Sciences, Dentistry, Diabetes and Endo, Diagnostics, ENT, Gastroenterology, Neurosciences, and Radiology. She has completed her Bachelors in Biomedical Sciences from DU and then pursued Masters in Biotechnology from Amity University. She has a working experience of 5 years in the field of medical research writing, scientific writing, content writing, and content management. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751