A Controlled Clinical Study of Risperidone and Low Dose of Clozapine in Treating Schizophrenia

Objective:To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy and adverse effects of risperidone and low dose of clozapine in the treatment of schizophrenia. Methods:96 patients with schizophrenia were recruited and randomly divided into groups A, B and C. All the patients were treated for a total of 12 weeks with the protocol as follows. In group A, the patients were treated with risperidone and low dose of clozapine, while risperidone and clozapine were administered to the patients in groups B and C, respectively. The brief psychiatric rating scale(BPRS) and the treatment emergent symptom scale(TESS) were employed to assess the patients' symptoms before and after the treatment. Results:It was showed that 62.5% of the patients in group A had an obvious improvement in contrast to 37.5% in the group C. The effect of combined use of the two drugs was superior to that of clozapine only (P0.05). But the efficacy of risperidone was almost the same as that of clozapine. The occurrence of adverse effects caused by risperidone in combination of low dose of clozapine were significantly lower than that by either risperidone or clozapine(P0.05). Conclusion:The two drugs used in combination will yield a better outcome.