What is the most serious side effect of clozapine?

Clozapine may cause myocarditis (swelling of the heart muscle that may be dangerous) or cardiomyopathy (enlarged or thickened heart muscle that stops the heart from pumping blood normally).

What is a fatal side effect of clozapine?

There is significant morbidity and mortality associated with clozapine including risk of agranulocytosis, aspiration pneumonia, bowel ischemia, myocarditis, seizures, and weight gain.

What is the most serious risk related to clozapine treatment?

The most severe and potentially life-threatening clozapine-related blood dyscrasias is neutropenia, which may eventually develop into clozapine-induced agranulocytosis or granulocytopenia. This occurs in roughly 0.8–2% of patients and requires mandatory hematological monitoring.

Why is clozapine a high risk medication?

Clozapine is associated with several significant adverse effects, including agranulocytosis, neutropenia, constipation (which can be severe), myocarditis and adverse metabolic effects. These adverse effects are not necessarily dose-related and may occur at any time during treatment.

When should clozapine be stopped?

Permanent discontinuation of clozapine treatment is recommended for patients showing evidence of agranulocytosis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, or QT prolongation greater than 500 ms if no alternative causes can be found.

Schizophrenia - Clozapine Side effects

How long can you stay on clozapine?

However, research has shown that long-term use (7–11 years) of any antipsychotic treatment by people with schizophrenia is associated with lower mortality than no drug use and clozapine is associated with lower mortality than other commonly used first- and second-generation antipsychotic agents.

Why is clozapine rarely used?

The life-threatening side-effects of clozapine and mandatory requirement for white blood cell (WBC) counts may partly account for the less than optimal use of the drug in clinical practice.

What should you watch when taking clozapine?

Tell your doctor immediately if you have any of the following symptoms while you are taking clozapine: extreme thirst, frequent urination, extreme hunger, blurred vision, or weakness.

Can clozapine cause sudden death?

Many cases of sudden death may be attributable to cardiac complications of clozapine, but other unidentified causes of sudden death may be due to its metabolic side-effects.

What should you avoid when taking clozapine?

Do not drive, operate machines, swimming, climbing, or do anything else that could be dangerous until you know how this medicine affects you. This medicine can cause changes in your heart rhythm, such as a condition called QT prolongation. It may cause fainting or serious side effects in some patients.

What does clozapine do to the brain?

Clozapine is an antipsychotic medicine that helps to adjust the levels of dopamine and other chemicals available in your brain. Clozapine reduces dopamine activity where it is too high, helping with symptoms like hallucinations.

How much clozapine is fatal?

The fatal dose of clozapine is not clearly established but several published reports suggest that most cloza- pine overdose fatalities occur at doses greater than 2,000 mg and are primarily associated with cardiac failure or aspiration pneumonia (Renwick et al. 2000, Ciappini et al. 2020).

Which two tests are mandatory for patients taking clozapine?

Blood monitoring is mandatory for the prescription of clozapine. White blood cell (WBC) and Neutrophil count (NC) are measured weekly for 18 weeks and every 28 days thereafter, continuing for the duration of treatment with clozapine.

Is there a better drug than clozapine?

Loxapine can be an excellent alternative to clozapine.

Is clozapine worth it?

Yes, the 2013 study, Comparative efficacy and tolerability of 15 antipsychotic drugs in schizophrenia: A multiple-treatments meta-analysis, published in the Lancet showed Clozapine as the number 1 antipsychotic in effectiveness. It was found to be 33% more effective than Olanzapine and 50% more than Haloperidol.

How often do you need blood work for clozapine?

To receive clozapine, patients must be part of a system that includes regular ANC monitoring and REMS registry reporting of neutrophil counts. When starting clozapine, ANC is measured every week for 6 months, then every other week for 6 months, then monthly, if all ANC results are adequate.

How does clozapine make you feel?

Results. Sedation, fatigue, agitation, dizziness, hypersalivation, weight gain, tachycardia, headache, constipation and confusion were amongst the highest recorded Clozapine adverse effect in the three months following the start of treatment.

What is a normal clozapine level?

Levels of around 0.6-0.8 mg/L have been proposed as the upper therapeutic limit. There is a clearer link between seizures and plasma levels over 1.0 mg/L and other types of toxicity with levels over 0.75 mg/L. For levels >1mg/L, consider cautious dose reduction and LFT (Liver Function Test) measurement.

Does clozapine shorten your life?

Long-term, crude mortality rate ratios were not significantly lower in patients ever treated with clozapine during follow-up, but significantly lower in patients continuously treated with clozapine compared to patients with other antipsychotics (mortality rate ratio = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.36–0.85, P-value = . 007).

Does clozapine make you lazy?

A very common side effect of clozapine is sedation or drowsiness. This occurs in most patients when they are new to clozapine as they titrate the dosage up. Sedation is not always a problem, since early in treatment with clozapine, people are often agitated or psychotic, and sedation can be calming.

Can clozapine be stopped?

If the discontinuation of treatment with clozapine is desired, it should be gradually tapered off over several weeks (50mg/week), rather than abruptly discontinued. Slow off-titration is preferred, if possible, to avoid withdrawal syndromes.

Does clozapine affect memory?

These data show that clozapine can cause memory impairment and it potentiates rather than reverses hippocampal lesion-induced deficits. There are critical sex-related differences in these effects.

Why is clozapine taken at night?

With a relatively short half-life of 12h and a very quick dissociation rate from the dopamine D2 receptor, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics principles would dictate that clozapine be administered twice daily. However, due to clozapine's side effects (e.g., sedation), it is often prescribe once daily at bedtime.

What happens if clozapine is stopped suddenly?

Abrupt withdrawal of clozapine has been associated with symptoms of “cholinergic rebound,” including nausea, vomiting, hypersalivation, diarrhea, diaphoresis, insomnia, and agitation, as well as rapid onset of psychosis.

How much clozapine can you take in a day?

Adults—At first, 12.5 milligrams (mg) per day, taken as a single dose or two times per day. Your doctor may adjust your dose as needed. However, the dose is usually not more than 900 mg per day.