Objective:
To investigate whether inpatients with disorganized schizophrenia are more resistant to treatment.
Method:
Eighty-five inpatients were assessed at admission and at discharge for schizophrenia subtype, symptom severity, and treatment resistance criteria.
Results:
Disorganized patients were significantly more treatment-resistant than paranoid patients (60%, p = 0.001), and presented worse scores on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI-S), and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF) (p < 0.001). Although the difference was not significant, 80% of treatment-resistant patients with disorganized schizophrenia responded to clozapine.
Conclusion:
Patients with the disorganized subtype of schizophrenia should benefit from clozapine as a second-line agent.
Clozapine response; disorganized schizophrenia; treatment-resistant schizophrenia; subtypes of schizophrenia; clinical predictors