Psychiatr. praxi 2018; 19(1): 17-21 | DOI: 10.36290/psy.2018.004

Therapeutic approaches in drug-resistant treatment schizophrenia

prof. MUDr. Klára Látalová, Ph.D.

Klinika psychiatrie FN Olomouc a Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci

Schizophrenia for many patients is a lifelong mental disorder with significant consequences on most functional domains. One fifthto one third of patients with schizophrenia experience persistent psychotic symptoms despite adequate trials of antipsychotictreatment, and are considered to have treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). Clozapine is the only medication to demonstrateefficacy for psychotic symptoms in such patients. However, clozapine is not effective in 40–70 % of patients with TRS and it hassignificant limitations in terms of potentially life-threatening side effects and the associated monitoring. Accordingly, a numberof pharmacological and non-pharmacological biological approaches for clozapine-resistant schizphrenia have emerged. Thisarticle provides a brief review of recent therapeutic strategies for TRS, which include pharmacotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy,repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, and transcranial direct current stimulation.

Keywords: schizophrenia, treatment-resistant schizophrenia, clozapine, electroconvulsive therapy, repetitive transcranial magnetic
stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation

Published: April 10, 2018  Show citation