OBJECTIVE: A prospective study was carried out to assess the effectiveness and safety of clozapine in chronic treatment resistant schizophrenic patients followed up over one year in a public psychiatric hospital, Instituto Municipal Nise da Silveira, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. METHOD: Nine patients (7 men and 2 women) with diagnosis of schizophrenia (CID-10), mean age 32.8 years old (range 23 to 49 years old) and a mean duration of the illness 11.3 years (range 3 to 29 years) were under continuous clozapine treatment for a year. Treatment effectiveness was assessed applying the positive, negative and general psychopathology scale (PANSS) and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) at admission and 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Results were analyzed using paired t-test. RESULTS: By the 12th month the positive, negative and general psychopathology scale (PANSS) showed a statistically significant reduction. The values of PANSS factors (positive, negative, excitement, anxiety/depression and cognitive) were also analyzed, and it was found that only the cognitive factor showed no significant improvement. The total score on the BPRS showed a significant reduction by the 12th month. No adverse events were observed during the period of the treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that clozapine, when used in public psychiatric hospitals' psychosocial rehabilitation programs, with adequate blood monitoring, is a safe and effective antipsychotic drug and should be part of the therapeutic armamentarium for chronic refractory patients. Long-term observational studies with large sample sizes on clozapine or other new antipsychotic drug effectiveness are necessary to better establish these drugs' benefits in treatment-resistant schizophrenics.
Schizophrenia; Clozapine; Treatment outcome; Outcome assesment
