Therapeutic effects of clozapine

The double-blind method was used to compare the therapeutic effects of clozapine and chlorpromazine in a sequential cohort of 50 schizophrenic patients with similar demographic characteristics, randomly allocated to two groups ("experimental" and "control") of 25 patients each. At the end of the 6-week trial period, statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in both the symptom check-list score and the overall clinical evaluation. Follow-up evaluations conducted at 3- and 4-year intervals show that the differences between the two groups are presistent, which points in the direction of a better and more sustained therapeutic effect of clozapine over chlorpormazine. No discernible ill effects which could be attributed to either drug were detected throughout the 4-year period.