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Clinical Efficacy of Clozapine in Treatment-Refractory Schizophrenia: An Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

John M. Kane
John M. Kane*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital, Division of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Glen Oaks, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
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Abstract

The treatment of patients with schizophrenia who fail to respond to antipsychotic medications remains a challenge. Despite numerous attempts to establish effective somatic treatment approaches for this population, clozapine appears to be the only well established alternative. Depending upon trial duration and response criteria, between 30% and 60% of previously unresponsive patients appear to derive clinically significant benefit from clozapine. Clozapine also has important advantages in terms of its reduced propensity to produce extrapyramidal side-effects. Agranulocytosis remains an important risk, so strategies to improve the benefit-to-risk ratio should be explored. Issues such as trial duration, dosage, blood levels and predictors of response require additional study.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue S17: Clozapine - The Atypical Antipsychotic , May 1992 , pp. 41 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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