Assessment and management of clozapine-induced hematological side effects, highlighting effective strategies.
Clozapine (CZP) is considered the drug of choice for treating schizophrenia when two other antipsychotics have been ineffective. It has been shown to be effective in treating both positive and negative symptoms of the disorder. However, patients taking CZP are at risk of experiencing hematological adverse effects such as agranulocytosis, neutropenia, eosinophilia, leukocytosis, and thrombocytopenia. To optimize the clinical use of CZP, therapeutic drug monitoring of plasma CZP levels provides significant benefits in everyday clinical practice. It increases the confidence of prescribing the medication and enhances patient adherence to treatment by ensuring its effectiveness and minimizing dose-related side effects. Assessment is the cornerstone for effective management of the side effect for which knowing how to assess the side effect and what are the possible side effects becomes essential.
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Deb et al. (2025) studied this question.
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