clozapine: a new revolt in treatment of schizophrenia

clozapine is the first antipsycotic drug with a great efficacy. thirty to fifty percent of treatment-resistant schizophrenics markedly improved with clozapine. approximately, 25% of long-term patients, treated with clozapine, could be discharged. this improvement included negative as well as positive symptom areas. clozapine produced no extrapyramidal side effects. tardive dyskinesia, a major side effect of antipsychotics is not probably induced by the drug. agranulocytosis that occurs in 1-2% of patients treated with clozapine is the most dangerous side effect with a high mortality rate. so, weekly monitoring of white blood cell count is necessary for safe and effective use of clozapine because fatal outcomes can be reduced and even completely prevented by the early detection of the reduction in white blood cell count. clozapine offers considerable promise for better antipsychotic effect than currently available drugs, but its high cost causes substantial problems for patients with limited financial income