title: Pharmacogenetics in schizophrenia: a review of clozapine studies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Clozapine is quite effective to treat schizophrenia, but its use is complicated by several factors. Although many patients respond to antipsychotic therapy, about 50% of them exhibit inadequate response, and ineffective medication trials may entail weeks of unremitted illness, potential adverse drug reactions, and treatment nonadherence. This review of the literature sought to describe the main pharmacogenetic studies of clozapine and the genes that potentially influence response to treatment with this medication in schizophrenics.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched the PubMed database for studies published in English in the last 20 years using keywords related to the topic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our search yielded 145 studies that met the search and selection criteria. Of these, 21 review articles were excluded. The 124 studies included for analysis showed controversial results. Therefore, efforts to identify key gene mechanisms that will be useful in predicting clozapine response and side effects have not been fully successful. Further studies with new analysis approaches and larger sample sizes are still required.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal Fluminense, Department of General Biology, NiteróiRJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fabiana Barzotti
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Kohlrausch
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003024:Clozapine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004351:Drug Resistance / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D003024:Clozapine