Abstract:Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of ziprasidone mesylate in the treatment of acute exacerbation of schizophrenia. Methods Enrolled in this clinical study were 72 elderly patients with schizophrenia treated in the Department of Psychiatry of Sichuan Provincial Guangyuan Mental Health Center from January 2016 to December 2017, who were randomly divided into ziprasidone mesylate group and haloperidol group with 36 patients in each group. In the former, ziprasidone mesylate 5-10 mg once, no more than 20 mg every day was administered intramuscularly. In the latter, haloperidol 5 mg once, no more than 10 mg every day was administered intramuscularly. The two groups were compared in the positive and negative symptoms scale (PANSS) and clinical global impression-severity of illness (CGI-SI) before and up to 72 h after treatment, and positive and negative symptoms scale-excited component (PANSS-EC) before treatment (T0) and at 2 h (T1), 8 h (T2), 24 h (T3), 48 h (T4), and 72 h (T5) after treatment. SAS statistics 9.0 was used for statistical analysis. Depending on data type, independent sample t test or Chi-square test was used for intergroup comparison, and paired t test for comparison before and after treatment. Results There was no significant difference in PANSS and CGI-SI scores between the two groups before treatment and up to 72 h after treatment (P>0.05). PANSS and CGI-SI scores for two groups at 72 h after treatment were significantly lower than those before treatment (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in PANSS-EC scores between two groups at each time point before and after treatment (P<0.05). PANSS-EC scores at T1-5 were significantly lower than those at T0 (P<0.05), and PANSS-EC scores at T2-5 were significantly lower than those at T1, the differences being statistically significant (P<0.05). Compared with haloperidol group, the ziprasidone mesylate group had significantly lowerincidence of side effects, including myotonia [2.78%(1/36) vs 16.67%(6/36)], tremor [2.78%(1/36) vs 19.44%(7/36)], rogue [5.56%(2/36) vs 22.22%(8/36)], and head and neck movement [2.78%(1/36) vs 19.44%(7/36)], the differences being statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion Ziprasidone mesylate has similar efficacy in the treatment of acute agitation symptoms of schizophrenia compared with conventional haloperidol treatment and has low incidences of side effects.