Study of Clozapine therapy in schizophrenia in a naturalistic Tertiary setting in India

The average Clozapine ranged from 75 to 600 mg , with the average daily dose being 225 mg . Seventy eight per cent of the investigated patients shoed hypersalivation and 63 showed overweight . Mild Parkinsonism was reported in 15 and akathisia in 11 of the patients . Clozapine did not seem to induce tardive dysakinesia (TD ) in any of the patients within a treatment period of 7-8 years as per the study . Another study has recorded that adverse effects occurred in 56 of patients with most frequent side effects being sedation (17 , EEG alterations (16

increase of liver enzymes (8 , hypotension (7 , hypersalivation (5 fever (5 , ECG alterations (4 , tachycardia (3 , gastro-intestinal (3 ) and delirious states (2 ( HYPERLINK "http /www .ncbi .nlm .nih .gov /entrez /query .fcgi ?db pubmed cmd Search itoo l pubmed_Abstract term 22Naber D 22 5BAuthor 5D " Naber D ,1989 . But another study on long term Clozapine shows that severe side-effects led to discontinuation of clozapine treatment only in 6 percent of the cases with no case of agranulocytosis ( HYPERLINK "http /www .ncbi .nlm .nih .gov /entrez /query .fcgi ?db pubmed cmd Search itoo l pubmed_Abstract term 22Leppig M 22 5BAuthor 5D " Leppig M ,1989 According to a recent study ,the efficacy of clozapine therapy in schizophrenic patients depends on a lot of factors involving the benefit /risk ratio including the clinical status of the patient , the patient 's request and his feeling ,his tolerability , the lack of dystonia and other extrapyramidal side effects . The most frequent side effects during therapy according to the study are sedation , EEG alteration , seizures , increase of liver enzymes , hypotension /collapse hypersalivation , fever , ECG alteration , tachycardia , gastro-intestinal adverse effects , weight gain , and leucopoenia . Although Clozapine is an atypical neuroleptic drug that has proved to be effective in alleviating psychotic symptoms refractory to treatment with standard...