SynthesisTrends in psychiatry and psychotherapy2025
Haloperidol versus second-generation antipsychotics on the cognitive performance of individuals with schizophrenia and related disorders: pairwise meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in Trends in psychiatry and psychotherapy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pharmacological interventions for social cognitive impairments in schizophrenia: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Pooled it
- The Association Between Psychotropic Medications and Cognitive Functioning in a Real-World Cohort of 869 Individuals with Schizophrenia.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2026Article
- Negative association between cognitive functioning and antipsychotic DPsychological medicine · 2026Article
- Clinical practice guidelines for assessment and management of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Why clinical neuropsychology matters in schizophrenia care.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveDespite previous literature, the superiority of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) relative to first-generation antipsychotics - especially haloperidol - on cognitive management in schizophrenia is still controversial. Thus, we aimed to compare the effects of haloperidol versus SGAs on the cognitive performance of individuals with schizophrenia or related disorders.
methodsWe conducted an updated systematic review and nine pairwise meta-analyses of double-blinded randomized controlled trials published up to October 30th, 2022, using MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Embase.
resultsTwenty-eight trials were included, enrolling 1,932 individuals. Compared to SGAs, haloperidol performed worse on cognitive composite (mean difference [MD] -0.13; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] -0.33 to -0.03), processing speed (MD -0.17; 95%CI -0.28 to -0.07), attention (MD -0.14; 95%CI -0.26 to -0.02), motor performance (MD -0.17; 95%CI -0.31 to -0.03), memory and verbal learning (MD -0.21; 95%CI -0.35 to -0.08), and executive function (MD -0.27; 95%CI -0.43 to -0.11). In contrast, there were no significant differences between SGAs and haloperidol on working memory (MD 0.10; 95%CI -0.08 to 0.27), visual learning (MD 0.08; 95%CI -0.05 to 0.21), social cognition (MD 0.29; 95%CI -0.30 to 0.88), and visuoconstruction (MD 0.17; 95%CI -0.04 to 0.39).
conclusionHaloperidol had poorer performance in global cognition and in some cognitive domains, but with small effect sizes. Therefore, it was not possible to conclude that haloperidol is certainly worse than SGAs in the long-term cognitive management of schizophrenia.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.