ER Antipsych Meds: To Inhale or Not to Inhale?

Soon to be prescribed off-label for pain patients?

From MedPage Today:

Emergency physicians often struggle with acutely agitated patients, balancing the hope that patients will improve with oral medications against the often dangerous options of physical restraint or involuntary medications.

For psychiatric patients, that often means intramuscular (IM) antipsychotic medications such as haloperidol or droperidol, with or without benzodiazepines. The process can be unsafe, scary, or even violent. But faster and safer options may be on the horizon — in March of this year, the FDA approved loxapine (Adasuve) for the treatment of agitation in the setting of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, thus introducing to the U.S. market the first inhaled antipsychotic.