BACKGROUND Clozapine is the treatment of choice in drug-resistant schizophrenia. Lamotrigine is a mood stabiliser recommended as combined treatment strategy in clozapine-resistant patients. There are cases of late-onset agranulocytosis reported in literature. Some are associated with clozapine or lamotrigine, others with the combination of both. CASE REPORT The article presents a case of rapi...

The authors sought to give a perspective of the local use of two atypical neuroleptics which may represent a new era in the treatment of schizophrenia. The findings from local drug trials and clinical reports are summarised. Both clozapine and risperidone are efficacious in reducing the psychotic symptomatology of schizophrenia as well as inducing less extrapyramidal side-effects. Differences i...

Clozapine, a commonly used atypical antipsychotic, can precipitate a severe withdrawal syndrome. In this report, we describe a case of delirium with catatonic features emerging after the immediate cessation of clozapine subsequent to concerns of developing neuroleptic malignant syndrome. After multiple treatments were found to be inefficacious, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was initiated, res...

Clozapine remains the treatment of choice in refractory schizophrenia despite its various requirement to prescribe, such as mandatory blood monitoring program and various metabolic complication. Currently, clozapine is recommended only after two failed adequate antipsychotics trials. We report a case of a successful early clozapine trial in the treatment of first-episode schizophrenia patient, ...

Tardive dystonia (TDt) is a debilitating side effect of long-term antipsychotic treatment. Even though TDt is associated with increased psychiatric morbidity, mortality, and severely decreased quality of life, there are no treatment modalities for TDt. Clozapine has been used as a treatment option for TDt in patients with schizophrenia. Interestingly, several recent case reports have indicated ...

Specific electroencephalogram (EEG) changes during clozapine therapy were prospectively studied in a cohort of 50 chronic state hospital patients with schizophrenia who were randomly assigned to one of three nonoverlapping clozapine serum level ranges (50-150 ng/mL, 200-300 ng/mL, and 350-450 ng/mL). EEGs were obtained before clozapine was instituted, and after 10 weeks of treatment. Fifty-thre...

OBJECTIVE This study compared the effect of clozapine and haloperidol on positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and in patients with high levels of negative symptoms or the deficit syndrome. METHOD Patients were participants in a 15-site double-blind, random-assignment Veterans Administration trial comparing clozapine (N=205) and haloperidol (N=217) in hospitalized patients with refr...

OBJECTIVE The authors examined the relationship between treatment with clozapine and rates of arrest of psychotic outpatients with criminal histories. METHOD Patients who had been given a DSM-IV psychotic diagnosis were selected from an urban outpatient clinic database. Background checks performed on 360 patients identified 165 (45.8%) with positive criminal histories in Massachusetts. The au...

Traditionally, patients who are considered treatment-resistant, or who present with more severe symptoms, are often considered for clozapine therapy. The combination of clozapine with another SGA, or on FGA, is also commonly utilized for such severe cases, and may be considered standard-of-care given the prevalence of these strategies. The following case report involves a chronically symptomati...