17/07/03: An updated literature search revealed no new randomized controlled trials since the last review, and no new evidence to alter the results and recommendations of our report of 2002. A new article (Pelton 2003) described plasma haloperidol levels of an earlier RCT (Devanand 1998), finding that haloperidol plasma levels of ‐> 1.5 ng/ml, but not doses of haloperidol (range, 0.5 mg/d ‐ 3.0 mg/d), correlated with improvement in agitation as measured by Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale total scores (P < 0.01), and that higher haloperidol plasma levels were also associated with increased frequency of extrapyramidal side effects. Because the findings were derived from a post‐hoc analysis of Devanand's 1998 study, and did not include comparison with BPRS changes among control subjects they must be interpreted cautiously. Nevertheless, the new study represents an effort to establish a more direct link between haloperidol therapy of demented patients with agitation, and patient response (improvement and side effects) to therapy.