Objectives :Clozapine is effectively used to treat treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients. Researchers have been conducted on the usage, effects, side effects and the amount of use in the actual clinical practice.
Methods :Research is one by the retrospective review of medical records of 53 patients, who were admitted at the department of neuropsychiatry of Maryknoll general hospital from Jan 1, 1997 until Apr 31, 2002 and were treated Clozapine afterward.
Results :The average age of the patients vas 30.68.6year and the average duration of illness was 9.1 6.9years and the number of admission history was 2.42.0. The prior number of antipsychotics use is average 2.60.9. Fifty patients were diagnosed schizophrenia. Fcr the reason of usage, forty-seven patier~ts(88.7%) were resistant to prior antipsychotics and average duration of admission was 66.231.1 days since the administration. When comparing P,gNSS score before and after the administration, at the moment of getting out the hospital, the symptom has improved in the PANSS positive, negative, and total score. When the treatment-response group, which defines that the PANSS total score improves over 25%, 32.1 %(17patients) of the group showed progress in the drug treatment. The side effects were hypersalivation, sedation, weight gain over 7%, constipation, seizure, fever, dizziness, enuresis, abnormal LFT, vomiting, palpitation, and dry mouth in frequency order.
Conclusion :Clozapine is effective to the treatment-resistant schizophrenia, but the effect is limited. In terms of the side effects seizure has been detected at a higher frequency and also myoclonic jerk has at a higher frequency either. The thing that should not be overlooked is that myoclonic jerk could progress to generalized seizure.
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