[New-onset pulmonary tuberculosis patients with schizophrenia: course and efficiency of treatment]

To investigate the specific features of the course and efficiency of treatment, the authors examined 72 patients with new-onset pulmonary tuberculosis and schizophrenia versus 68 new-onset pulmonary tuberculosis patients without mental diseases. Tuberculosis has been found to be identified in 66.7% of schizophrenics by lung fluorography made at a mental hospital or specialized dispensary. This mainly diagnoses the circumscribed forms of the disease with a low bacterial discharge, drug resistance, and cavitation while in nonschizophrenics, pulmonary tuberculosis is detected in 33.3% of cases in general health care network facilities. Following 9 months, complex treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in schizophrenics succeeded in ceasing bacterial discharge, as shown by microscopy and sputum cultures, in 94.4 and 84.5% of cases, respectively. However, in schizophrenics receiving chemotherapy for tuberculosis, adverse reactions are revealed in 63.9% of cases, with this the incidence of these reactions depends not only on antituberculosis drugs, but also on drugs taken by patients for schizophrenia. Schizophrenic patients with pulmonary tuberculosis need an individual approach to treating the patient, longer treatment, intermittent use of antituberculosis agents, regular clinical and laboratory monitoring of the development of side effects, and complex pathogenetic treatment.