Individualizing Clozapine and Risperidone Treatment for Schizophrenia Patients

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a severe disorder that significantly affects the quality of life and total functioning of patients and their caregivers. Clozapine is the first atypical antipsychotic with fewer adverse effects and established efficacy. As a rule of thumb, risperidone is one of the most reliable and effective antipsychotics for newly diagnosed and chronic schizophrenics. Pharmacogenetic studies have identified genomic variants of candidate genes that seem to be important in the way a patient responds to treatment. The recent progress made in pharmacogenomics will improve the quality of treatment, since drug doses will be tailored to the special needs of each patient. In this article, we review the available literature attempting to delineate the role of genomic variations in clozapine and risperidone response in schizophrenic patients of various ethnicities. We conclude that pharmacogenomics for these two drugs is still not ready for implementation in the clinic.

KEYWORDS::

• antipsychotics
• association study
• clozapine
• genomic variations
• pharmacogenomics
• risperidone
• schizophrenia

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was partly supported by the University of Patras research budget and an European Commission grant (RD-CONNECT; FP7-305444) to GP Patrinos. A Squassina is a Research Associate funded with a fellowship from Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (RAS), grant “PO Sardegna FSE 2007–2013, L.R.7/2007” for the Promotion of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation in Sardinia. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly supported by the University of Patras research budget and an European Commission grant (RD-CONNECT; FP7-305444) to GP Patrinos. A Squassina is a Research Associate funded with a fellowship from Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (RAS), grant “PO Sardegna FSE 2007–2013, L.R.7/2007” for the Promotion of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation in Sardinia. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.