Usefulness of plasma haloperidol levels for monitoring clinical efficacy and side effects in Alzheimer patients with psychosis and behavioral dyscontrol.

Objective: This study investigated whether measurement of plasma levels may be useful in monitoring clinical efficacy and side effects during oral haloperidol (HL) treatment of psychosis and behavioral dyscontrol in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD).

Methods: After a single-blind placebo period of 1 week, 71 outpatients with AD were randomized to a 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of HL 2 mg-3 mg/day (standard dose), HL 0.5 mg-0.

Sertraline treatment of elderly patients with depression and cognitive impairment.

Background: There is little information on the efficacy and side effects of antidepressant treatment in elderly patients with combined depression and cognitive impairment without dementia (DEP-MCI), and it is unclear if cognitive performance improves with antidepressant response in these patients.

Methods: In 39 elderly DEP-MCI patients, changes in depression and cognitive impairment were evaluated with open sertraline treatment up to 200 mg/day for 12 weeks.

Results: Of the 26 completers, 17 were responders and nine were non-responders.