Clinical Study of Clozapine Treatment and Predictors of Response in Schizophrenia

Kim, Chul Eung; Shin, Sang Eun; Kang, Min Hee

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To search for the predictive clinical variables of the schizophrenic patients who responded to clozapine, the authors studied retrospectively the clinical variables of the schizophrenics who were treated with clozapine at least for 6 months at outpatient and inpatient department of Inha University Hospital.
METHODS
Thee subjects were schizophrenic patients who satisfied DSM-IV diagnostic criteria and were treated with clozapine at least for 6 months at outpatient and inpatient department. 41 schizophrenic patients were used with clozapine, but 13 patients were excluded because of insufficient length and data, so 28 patients were analyzed finally. All ssubjects are divided into responder and non-responder by the CGI scores. Using SAS package program, all data were analyzed by Fisher's exact test, Mantel-Haenczel chi test and multiple regression test.
RESULTS
Among the total 28 schizophrenic patients(male 18, female 10), 15 schizophrenics were responded with clozapine treatment. Age of onset, number of negative symptoms and clinical subtypes were significantly different from two groups and gender, mode of onset, number of hospitalizations, duration of hospitalization, family history of psychosis, maximal dose of clozapine and duration of clozapine treatment did not show significant difference between two groups.
CONCLUSIONS
This study suggest that there is some schizophrenic patients who responded well with clozapine treatment. The characteristics of the responding group were older age of onset, a few negative symptoms and paranoid subtype.