The impact of delay in clozapine initiation on treatment outcomes in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia: A systematic review

Approximately one third of patients with schizophrenia have treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TR-SCZ) (Suzuki et al., 2012), which is commonly defined as less than 20% of reduction in positive symptoms after at least two trials of non-clozapine antipsychotics, each at an adequate dose (i.e. 400 to 600 mg chlorpromazine equivalent per day) and duration (i.e. ≥ 6 weeks) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Gillespie et al., 2017; Howes et al., 2017). Importantly, delay in initiating clozapine, the most effective antipsychotic in TR-SCZ, has been implicated as a contributor to poorer outcomes (Howes et al., 2012; Nielsen et al., 2010; Sommer et al., 2012; Yoshimura et al., 2017).

Source: Psychiatry Research - July 9, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Parita Shah, Yusuke Iwata, Eric Plitman, Eric E. Brown, Fernando Caravaggio, Julia Kim, Shinichiro Nakajima, Margaret Hahn, Gary Remington, Philip Gerretsen, Ariel Graff-Guerrero Source Type: research