Comparation of quetiapine and clozapine in treatment of patients with first-onset schizophrenia

AIM: To compare the efficacy and safety between quetiapine and clozapine. METHODS: There were 85 patients with first on-set schizophrenia in this study,43 patients treated with quetiapine 425± 56 mg·d -1 and 42 patients treated with clozapine 350± 73 mg·d -1 . The study lasted for 8 wk. The Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) and Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale (TESS) were used to evaluate therapeutic and side effects. RESULTS: The PANSS scores in both groups decreased significantly after treatment with those two drugs(P 0.05 or P 0.01 ). The rates of improvement were similar in quetiapine group and in clozapine group ( 88.4 % vs 83.8 %). The efficient dosages ranged from 375 to 600 mg·d -1 for quetiapine and from 300 to 475 mg·d -1 for clozapine. TESS showed quetiapine had fewer side effects than clozapine. CONCLUSION: Quetiapine has similar efficacy and the time before effect to clozapine in the treatment of schizophrenic with fewer side effects than clozapine.