[A review on augmentation of clozapine treatment]

Clozapine is one of the most effective pharmacological agents in the treatment of treatment-resistant patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective and bipolar disorder. Nevertheless, there is still an important proportion of patients who do not respond to clozapine treatment given at a sufficient dose and duration. Some patients cannot tolerate the dosage necessary for an adequate treatment. Case reports, series, various open and controlled trials suggest that there are effective strategies of augmenting clozapine treatment in such cases. In this article, strategies of clozapine augmentation are reviewed in the light of findings related with the efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetic/dynamic interaction profiles of such combinations used for augmentation. To our knowledge, there is only one study in the current literature reviewing this subject. Augmenting strategies are reviewed through the combination of clozapine with the serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), typical and atypical antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, NMDA agonists and electroconvulsive treatment (ECT).