title: Clozapine lacks previous clinical efficacy when restarted after a period of discontinuation: a case series.
abstract: No data are available in the literature about clozapine clinical efficacy when the drug is administered to schizophrenic patients who relapsed after discontinuation of long-term clozapine treatment and who had previously been responsive to the drug. In this study, three chronic schizophrenic patients are presented, who, in spite of a good clinical efficacy, decided to stop long-term clozapine treatment. Soon after their relapse they were again treated with clozapine: follow-up of these patients showed that clozapine partially lost its clinical efficacy since all three patients got worse compared with their initial clinical response.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Psychiatry Branch, University of Medical School, H.S.Paolo, Milan, Italy. scarones@imiucca.csi.unimi.it
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Epifani
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dragoni
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scarone
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000097:blood; D003024:Clozapine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016312:Treatment Refusal
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D003024:Clozapine