A comparison of two adjunctive treatment strategies in acute mania.

A benzodiazepine-neuroleptic adjunctive treatment strategy in a cohort of acutely manic patients was compared with standard neuroleptic adjunctive treatment in a matched sample treated in the same hospital. Thirty newly hospitalized manic patients receiving low-dose neuroleptic (310 mg/day chlorpromazine equivalents) and benzodiazepines (1.6 mg/day lorazepam equivalents) were compared, retrospectively, with 30 statistically similar patients receiving standard dose neuroleptic adjunctive treatment (590 mg/day chlorpromazine equivalents; 0.09 mg/day lorazepam equivalents). The benzodiazepine-neuroleptic-treated group demonstrated significantly fewer seclusion and restraint episodes (p less than .05) and were comparable on other parameters. Treatment with the benzodiazepine-neuroleptic combination may lead to fewer inpatient complications than standard neuroleptic treatment alone.