title: Acute accidental overdosage of haloperidol in children.
abstract: We report the details of an accidental overdosage of haloperidol in 24 children in one hospital in Kyushu, Japan. Evidence of acute toxicity included disturbances in consciousness (24/24), tremors in the extremities (16/24), an oculogyric or similar crisis (14/24), dysarthria (9/17), drooling (8/24), akathisia (6/20), hyperreflexia (6/24) and opisthotonos (3/24). Laboratory examinations revealed late-onset transient thrombocytosis (5/24), elevated AST and GPT (1/24) and abnormal ECG with prolonged QT interval in 2 of 8 children. We detected haloperidol in 11 of 18 children whose blood was specifically examined within four days after the final haloperidol administration. The maximum serum haloperidol level was 28.9 ng/ml. The mean half-life of haloperidol in the serum of five children (age range 2-10 years) was 18.6 +/- 12.2 h (mean +/- SD) (range 9.1-39.4 h).
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakaguchi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuishi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yano
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayata
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hitoshi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yamashita
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004340:Drug Contamination; D062787:Drug Overdose; D005260:Female; D006220:Haloperidol / Q000097:blood / Q000506:poisoning*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced; D011041:Poisoning / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D006220:Haloperidol