[Pimozide in non-psychotic elderly patients with behavioural disturbances. An open study (author's transl)].

20 non-psychotic aged (more than 60 years old) in-patients with behavior troubles were treated with pimozide in an open study for more than 12 weeks. Such symptoms deriving from the emotional sphere, mainly the aggressivity, had the best improvement rate. Together with this could also be seen an improvement of the social behavior. The dosage optimum was between 3 and 4 mg p.d., the improvement period seems to reach from the second to the eighth week. Extrapyramidal side-effects were rare, two patients developed, after more than nine months of therapy and long after the study had finished, a tardive hyperkinesia which was reversible after the withdrawal of the substance.