OBJECTIVE To describe the treatment pathway and patterns of clozapine use in patients with schizophrenia, including coprescribed psychotropic medications, and compare the extent of coprescribing of clozapine with that of non-clozapine schizophrenia treatment in community mental health services in the Auckland and Northland regions of New Zealand. METHODS A retrospective chart review was condu...

BACKGROUND We previously showed that systemic administration of the atypical neuroleptic clozapine in the rat altered a number of urodynamic variables and inhibited the external urethral sphincter. Since clozapine acts at several receptor types both at the periphery and the central nervous system, the site of action remained uncertain. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the e...

BACKGROUND Antipsychotic medications can cause an increase in blood glucose and the development of type II diabetes. Metformin may ameliorate these side effects. OBJECTIVE Assess whether or not metformin reduces the abnormalities in glucose metabolism that occur with use of the antipsychotic clozapine. METHODS Eighteen adult Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into three groups that were ...

Abstract Background Clozapine is the most effective antipsychotic for patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), however, it remains widely under-utilized in clinical practice. To date, relatively little attention has been given to patients’ experience of clozapine. By synthesizing existing literature, we sought determine experiences TRS treated Methods A systematic review was condu...

Clozapine is the drug of choice in treatment resistant schizophrenia. It reduces hospitalizations. Patients on clozapine are often co-prescribed other psychotropics. This report looks at a sample of twenty patients on clozapine. It finds that almost two thirds were on a psychotropic along with clozapine. Eight individuals were on an antidepressant; seven on an antipsychotic and five were on co-...

Clozapine has been consistently shown to be superior to other antipsychotics in the treatment of psychosis. However, clozapine usage has been limited due to required routine blood monitoring and the potential for life threatening side effects. We report a case of a 66-year-old female patient, who developed clozapine-induced agranulocytosis after 10 weeks of clozapine treatment and was subsequen...

INTRODUCTION We report the case of a multiple drug interaction involving clozapine, antifungals and oral contraceptives, which resulted in an increased clozapine plasma level, pericarditis with pericardial effusion and eosinophilia in a young Caucasian woman. These symptoms and signs disappeared a few days after discontinuation of clozapine. At present, we are not aware of reports of clozapine-...

Evidence is emerging that clozapine can adversely affect immunoglobulin levels. We present a case series of 17 clozapine-treated patients referred to clinical immunology centres in the north west England with otherwise-unexplained hypogammaglobulinaemia. This adds existing evidence and suggests cause clinically significant antibody deficiency will sometimes require specialist intervention. We...

OBJECTIVES Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug known for its impact on production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The aim of our work was to examine the impact of clozapine on the production of interleukin 6 (IL-6) by the LPS (lipopolysaccharide) stimulated macrophage cells and to confirm or exclude that it regulates the inflammation due to its interaction with alpha 7 nicotinic receptor...

OBJECTIVE To report a case of a patient treated with clozapine who developed pericarditis with pericardial effusion that resolved when the drug was discontinued. METHOD Case report of a 21-year-old man with psychotic disorder that had been stable on clozapine therapy for five months (after failure of atypical antipsyhotic agents) presented to the emergency department complaining of chest pain...