title: Clinical efficacy of clozapine in treatment-refractory schizophrenia: an overview.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, New York.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kane
mesh_terms: D000380:Agranulocytosis / Q000139:chemically induced; D001480:Basal Ganglia Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced; D003024:Clozapine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
chemical_list: D003024:Clozapine