Haloperidol in the Treatment of Children with Severe Behaviour Disorders

Abstract

Since Janssen's (1959) introduction of haloperidol, numerous clinical trials have been published showing its usefulness in the treatment of mania and hypomanic states. Davies (1962) found it an effective drug in the treatment of adult patients showing aggressive behaviour resulting from various causes, and in the management of mania. Gerle (1963), in his review, showed the effectiveness of this drug in the control of disturbed behaviour in mentally sub-normal patients. He also showed (1962) that patients taking this drug are remarkably free from toxic reactions such as jaundice, agranulocytosis and allergic dermatitis. Haloperidol has been used in our unit (Rogers, 1955, 1965a) over the past three years. The impression has been gained that it controls aggressive, overactive and destructive behaviour in severely disturbed children, without impairing their ability to participate normally in the therapeutic activities of the unit (Rogers, 1965b).