Haloperidol may reduce mortality and likely result in little to no change in the occurrence of SAEs/SARs compared with placebo in critically ill patients with delirium.

However, the results were not statistically significant and more trial data are needed to provide higher certainty for the effects of haloperidol in these patients.

We included 11 RCTs with 15 comparisons (n = 2200); five were placebo-controlled.

The relative risk for mortality with haloperidol versus placebo was 0.89; 96.7% CI 0.77 to 1.03; I2 = 0% (moderate-certainty evidence) and for proportion of patients experiencing SAEs/SARs 0.94; 96.7% CI 0.81 to 1.10; I2 = 18% (low-certainty evidence).

We found no difference in days alive without delirium or coma (moderate-certainty evidence).

We found sparse data for other secondary outcomes and other comparators than placebo.

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