re re use of haldol and the elderly in article c az m mailer cc fsu edu picl account picl fsphy physics fsu edu writes adults the change in environment can cause problems anesthetic agents can cause confusion because the body cannot clear the medicines out of the body as easily the original poster did not say why his mother had been in hospital but i can answer a few general points elderly patients may exhibit a marked difficulty in coping after being in hospital for a few days the drastic change of environment will often unmask how marginally they have been coping at home even young people find the change unsettling though we have thought that this decrement in function after say anaesthesia and surgery for a fractured hip a common event in the elderly was due to anaesthesia there is good evidence that the change of situation is much more important some hospitals have tried a rapid transit system for hip fractures aiming to have the patient back at home within hours of admission the selection of the anaesthetic has no effect on the ability to discharge these patients early anaesthetists who work with the elderly which is almost all of us generally take care to tailor the choice and dose of drugs used to the individual patient even so there is some evidence that full mental recovery may take a surprisingly long time to return this is the sort of thing which is detected by setting quite difficult tasks not the gross change that the original poster noted haloperidol haldol tm is a long acting drug the plasma half life of the drug is up to hours if the decanoate a sort of slow release formulation is used it may be weeks the elderly are sensitive to haloperidol for a number of reasons without knowing more it is hard to comment don mackie his opinions esiology will disavow
