About one-third of patients with schizophrenia do not respond to conventional medications, leaving them with one effective treatment option: clozapine. Clozapine's most serious side effect, a life-threatening drop in white blood cell levels, has been effectively controlled through strict monitoring. However, recent findings show that the drug has other serious side effects .
The study is published in the American Journal of Psychiatry . Pneumonia and intestinal blockage are common among clozapine users Using data from the FinnGen study, the researchers found that clozapine-induced pneumonia and intestinal blockage, a severe form of gastrointestinal hypomotility, are much more common than previously reported. As many as 30% of schizophrenia patients on clozapine developed pneumonia, and 5% experienced intestinal blockage within 20 years of starting the medication.
Both side effects were linked to an increased risk of death. "The exceptionally long follow-up time in our study allowed us to assess clozapine's side effects more accurately. Previous studies have mainly identified side effects that occur shortly after starting the medication," explained Dr.
Juulia Partanen, a research physician at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki. In addition to Finland's comprehensive long-term health data registries, the country is also a global leader in clozapine use, which facilitated the study. Genetic testing could help identify high-risk patients T.