Does the Starting of Clozapine Influence Coprescription of Other Medications?: A Study From India

An experience of using Clozapine in elderly patients with mental disorders

BACKGROUND

There is little information on using clozapine in elderly patients with mental disorders from India.

AIM

To evaluate the sociodemographic and clinical profile of elderly (age ≥ 60 years) patients started on clozapine.

METHODOLOGY

The clozapine registry in the department was screened to identify elderly patients who were started on clozapine. Treatment records of these patients were reviewed to extract sociodemographic and clinical details.

RESULTS

Out of the available information of 1058 patients in the registry, 42 (3.96 %) were elderly (≥ 60 years) patients. About two-thirds of the patients had treatment resistance, i.e., their psychotic illness had not responded to two adequate trials of antipsychotics, and the second most common indication for starting clozapine was tardive dystonia or tardive dyskinesia (23.8 %). The mean dose of clozapine was 135.89 (SD: 109.6; Range: 37.5-500; median: 87.5) mg/day. The mean duration of clozapine use at the time of data extraction for the study sample was 3.55 (SD: 2.15; Range 0.3-9; median: 3) years. At the last follow-up, about three-fourths of patients were experiencing at least one side effect, with constipation being the most common side effect, followed by sedation, weight gain, and hypersalivation. In only four patients, clozapine was stopped during the follow-up. In terms of effectiveness, majority of the patients were rated as much improved or very much improved on Clinical Global Impression-Improvement subscale.

CONCLUSION

Clozapine can be safely used in elderly patients with mental disorders. Hence, clozapine should not be withheld in elderly patients with mental disorders whenever indicated.

Clozapine research from India: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Although clozapine is much researched in western literature, a review on Indian research on clozapine published in 2010 reported limited data and need for further research in this area.

AIM

We aimed to conduct a systematic review of research on clozapine from India from 2010 to mid-2022 and also compare the same with research output before 2010.

METHODOLOGY

A systematic various search engines, i.e., PUBMED, Medknow, Hinari and Google Scholar was done using the key words clozapine and India. Published articles with clozapine in the title and having an author from India, published during 2010 to July 2022 were included.

RESULTS

Initial Internet and hand searches yielded 280 articles, out of which 126 articles were excluded due to various reasons and 154 articles, were included for the review. This included 84 case reports, 49 original articles, 11 review articles and 10 letters to the editor as comments. We found an increase in the number of publications during the period of 2010-2022 compared to 1997-2009 in all types of publications. Over the years a significant proportion of the articles focused on various side effects of clozapine, factors associated with response and non-response to clozapine and evaluation of outcomes other than efficacy/effectiveness. However, all the studies were limited to a single centre with no multicentric studies on clozapine.

CONCLUSION

Over the last 12 years or so, there is increase in the number of publications on clozapine. However, there is lack of multicentric studies.