Is disorganized schizophrenia a predictor of treatment resistance? Evidence from an observational study.

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether inpatients with disorganized schizophrenia are more resistant to treatment. METHOD Eighty-five inpatients were assessed at admission and at discharge for schizophrenia subtype, symptom severity, and treatment resistance criteria. RESULTS Disorganized patients were significantly more treatment-resistant than paranoid patients (60%, p = 0.001), and presented worse scores on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI-S), and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF) (p < 0.001). Although the difference was not significant, 80% of treatment-resistant patients with disorganized schizophrenia responded to clozapine. CONCLUSION Patients with the disorganized subtype of schizophrenia should benefit from clozapine as a second-line agent.