Abstract
Background and objectives: Delusional disorder is an uncommon mental illness with an estimated prevalence of 0.03%.Since these patients have no insight in their disease, psychotherapy of them accompanies by many problems. It seems that using an effective drug with least side effects has an important role in treatment of this disorder. The aim of this study is comparison of theraputic effects of Risperidone and Haloperidole in treatment and management of delusional disorders.
Material and Methods: In this study, 35 patients (22 male and 13 female) suffering from delusional disorders according to DSMIV criteria and diagnosis of a psychiatrist,were selected and randomly divided into two groups. The Global Assessment of Function-sale (GAF) was measured in patients before treatment and then one group received Risperidone(2-6 mg/day) and the other was treated with Haloperidole(10-20 mg /day) .
Results: In the first group treated with Risperidone(19 cases) response to treatment was 89.5%,which was higher than the second group ,which was treated with Haloperidole(16 cases) with 68.5% response to treatment(p=0.248). The mean increase range of GAF in first group was higher than the second group (55 and 44 respectively)(p=0.003).
Conclusion: It seems that treatment of delusional disorder with Risoeridone is more effective than Haloperidole and ends to more increase in GAF.In the meantime Resperidone is tolerated better and has fewer side effects.