Clinical use of clozapine in a major urban setting: one year experience

This paper examines the clinical and demographic data of patients in the Clozapine Distribution System in Metropolitan Toronto in the first year after its inception. One hundred and thirty-seven patients were approved for funding during the year. They tended to be young, chronically and markedly ill patients suffering from schizophrenia, primarily with treatment resistance as the reason for clozapine therapy. Only 55 patients completed at least six months of therapy; 15 patients discontinued clozapine before six months of treatment, mainly because of side-effects and/or patients' noncompliance with bloodwork. Three patients discontinued clozapine because of haematological compromise. Clozapine was efficacious for the majority of patients who took it for at least six months, with improvement in all six clinical dimensions examined in the study. Nevertheless, the number of early discontinuation patients significantly lowered the overall effectiveness of clozapine in actual clinical practice.