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Clozapine - a survey of patient perceptions

Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ

L. Shapland, G. Laverick and J. Bond

Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK, Frimley, Camberley, Surrey

J. Munro

Institute of Psychiatry, Denmark Hill, London

AIMS AND METHOD

We aimed to find out how patients on clozapine felt about clozapine treatment. A structured questionnaire was given to 1284 consecutive patients attending 27 clozapine clinics in the UK.

RESULTS

The response rate was 44.4% (570 forms returned). This cohort of responders to the questionnaire consisted, for the most part, of Caucasian males who had been taking clozapine for more than 2 years. Respondents expressed largely favorable views on clozapine treatment. For example, 86.1% claimed to feel better on clozapine and 88.6% claimed to prefer to remain on clozapine than to change to another drug. Many patients stated that they disliked having to undergo blood testing, but a large majority (87.0%) felt that the advantages of clozapine outweighed disadvantages. All other responses supported this overall favourable view of clozapine therapy.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Patients stabilised on clozapine are largely content with their treatment. These results suggest that clozapine is effective as assessed by patients' own standards and that adherence to therapy is likely to be good.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

L.S., L.G. and J.B. are employees of Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK.

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