Is clozapine—aripiprazole combination a useful regime in the management of treatment-resistant schizophrenia?

Abstract

Around 40-70% patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia fail to respond to clozapine. Though combining antipsychotics is commonly practised with non-responders, there is little evidence for its use.We carried out a retrospective review of case notes of patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia on clozapine-aripiprazole combination at our clozapine clinic. We report changes in psychotic symptoms, social function, weight, total cholesterol, serum glucose, HDL, CGI and GAF score pre- and post-aripiprazole augmentation. Clozapine-aripiprazole combination was associated with 22% reduction of clozapine dose. Eighteen out of 24 (75%) lost a mean weight of 5.05 kg. There was improvement in positive and negative symptoms, social functions, weight loss and a moderate increase in HDL. Our findings suggest that clozapine-aripiprazole is a safe and tolerable combination; however, control trials are needed to validate our findings.