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Published on: November 21, 2013
Is disorganized schizophrenia a predictor of treatment resistance? Evidence from an observational study
Bruno Bertolucci Ortiz1, Gerardo Maria de Araújo Filho2, Ary Gadelha de Alencar Araripe Neto1
1Schizophrenia Program, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São PauloSP, Brazil.
Objective:
To investigate whether inpatients with disorganized schizophrenia are more resistant to treatment.
Method:
Eighty-five inpatients were assessed at admission and at discharge for schizophrenia subtype, symptom severity, and treatment resistance criteria.
Results:
Disorganized patients were significantly more treatment-resistant than paranoid patients (60%, p = 0.001), and presented worse scores on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI-S), and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF) (p < 0.001). Although the difference was not significant, 80% of treatment-resistant patients with disorganized schizophrenia responded to clozapine.
Conclusion:
Patients with the disorganized subtype of schizophrenia should benefit from clozapine as a second-line agent.
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