What is clozapine monitoring?

Monitoring of patient parameters Monitor leucocyte and differential blood counts. Clozapine requires differential white blood cell monitoring weekly for 18 weeks, then fortnightly for up to one year, and then monthly as part of the clozapine patient monitoring service.

What is a significant side effect of clozapine?

Get medical help right away if you have any very serious side effects, including: severe dizziness, fainting, mental/mood changes, difficulty breathing with exercise, sudden weakness, pain/redness/swelling of the arms/legs, persistent nausea/vomiting, stomach/abdominal pain, yellowing of eyes/skin.

Why is clozapine monitoring important?

Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic that is used for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. The drug is subject to strict monitoring requirements because it is associated with serious side effects, such as neutropenia, agranulocytosis, seizures, myocarditis and cardiomyopathy.

Does clozapine require lab monitoring?

The side effects are also the potential reasons for clozapine discontinuation. A mandatory requirement for its use is regular monitoring of white blood cell count and absolute neutrophil count.

What is EPS side effect?

Extrapyramidal side effects are a group of symptoms that can occur in people taking antipsychotic medications. 1 Symptoms of extrapyramidal effects include an inability to sit still, involuntary muscle contraction, tremors, stiff muscles, and involuntary facial movements.

What is EPS diagnosis?

Extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) are symptoms that develop in our body’s neurological system that cause involuntary or uncontrolled movements. Those symptoms may be in a variety of locations in the body including the trunk, arms, legs, feet, neck, mouth, and eyes.

What are the 4 extrapyramidal symptoms?

What is the difference between EPS and TD?

In contrast to acute EPS, TD is insidious in onset, arises only after prolonged treatment and is often masked by ongoing treatment. In addition, TD is irreversible in most cases but usually mild, whereas acute EPS are transient but unmistakable and incapacitating.

What is the difference between TD and EPS?

How do you monitor clozapine levels?

Levels should be a steady state, trough level. Clozapine reaches a steady-state concentration at 5-7 days. Levels should be drawn 12 hours (± 2 h) after the last dose. Clozapine blood levels are correlated with both clozapine effectiveness and side effects.