The use of clozapine plasma levels in optimising therapy

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Abstract
Clozapine is well known to be an effective treatment for neuroleptic-resistant schizophrenia. However, its use is complicated by a variable and delayed response and by a range of troublesome adverse effects. Current practice is usually to increase the dose initially to around 450 mg/day and then by small increments to a maximum of 900 mg/day according to response and tolerability. While this method is often successful, it has been suggested that a better way of optimising the dose of clozapine might be to monitor plasma concentrations of the drug.