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Olanzapine treatment after clozapine-induced granulocytopenia in 3 patients
J R Swartz1, J Ananth, M W Smith
1Department of Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, Calif. 90509-2910, USA.
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
|March 20, 1999
Abstract
Background:
How to best treat psychotic patients who have had past clozapine-induced agranulocytosis or granulocytopenia remains a problem.
Case Reports:
We report 3 patients with chronic schizophrenia who had previously stopped clozapine due to hematologic side effects. The patients evidenced improvement with olanzapine that equated to 16- to 31-point decreases in rating scale scores during 1-year follow-up without any hematologic abnormalities.
Conclusion:
The results suggest that olanzapine may be useful in treating patients with clozapine-induced granulocytopenia without the risk of recurrence of hematologic side effects.