Clozapine

Abstract

THE introduction of chlorpromazine in 1952 marked a turning point in the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.¹ Until then, the treatment of these illnesses had met with little success, and many patients with psychosis were held in largely custodial institutions for indefinite periods. Antipsychotic drugs brought new hope that morbidity and dysfunction in such patients could be ameliorated. In the past four decades, however, the limitations of the available agents have become clear: they fail to have appreciable benefit in perhaps 20 percent of patients with schizophrenia,^{1 2 3} and they have characteristic, sometimes severe and intolerable neurologic side effects. . . .