Socio demographic, clinical, and side effect profile of patients on clozapine in Kashmir, North India

Abstract

Background: Clozapine is an atypical second-generation antipsychotic belonging to the family of dibenzodiazepines. There is lack of literature on clozapine from this part of the world. So, our aim was to study the socio demographic, clinical and side effect profile of patients on clozapine in Kashmir. Results: The mean age of the study group was 32.6 ± 8.9 years with majority being males (78.4%), unmarried (78.4%), unemployed (77.2%), and belonging to nuclear families (77.2%). Almost half of them resided in urban localities (51.1%) and studied upto middle school (55.7%). Around three- fourth (75%) of the patients had diagnosis of treatment-resistant schizophrenia. The mean dose of clozapine was 338.92 ± 158.11 mgs. Sedation (76.1%), hypersalivation (69.5%), constipation (46.6%), and weight gain (34.1%) were most common side effects noted in patients. 4.5% cases developed seizures while on clozapine. 2.3% patients developed agranulocytosis while 4.5% patients developed neutropenia on clozapine. The neutropenia was more pronounced in patients of schizophrenia with suicidal tendencies with doses of more than 400 mg. Conclusions: We have used clozapine in a wide range of indications. Our patients seem to tolerate and respond to higher doses of clozapine and the prevalence of blood dyscrasias in our study sample was much higher than the rest of India.