Clozapine-Olanzapine

Clozapine
Type Antipsychotic
Group Atypical AP
links
Medscape Clozapine
PubChem 2818
PubMed Clozapine
Kompas (Dutch) Clozapine
Wikipedia Clozapine
Olanzapine
Type antipsychotic
Group atypical AP
Other use moodstabilizer
links
ATC-code N05AH03
Medscape Olanzapine
EMEA zyprexa
PubChem 4585
PubMed Olanzapine
Drugs.com olanzapine
Kompas (Dutch) Olanzapine
Wikipedia Olanzapine

Switch medication from Clozapine to Olanzapine.

Nietinrijdenbord.png Stop Clozapine
  • Day 1: Decrease daily dose with 25 mg every 2 days
Eenrichtingbord.png Start Olanzapine
  • Week 1: approx. 25% of target dose
  • Week 2: approx. 50% of target dose
  • Week 3: approx. 75% of target dose
  • Week 4: target dose
Infobord.png More information
  • Clozapine is generally considered to be more effective than other antipsychotic drugs. Clozapine is often used in treatment-resistant schizophrenia (poor treatment response to 2 or more antipsychotic drugs). So a switch from clozapine to another antipsychotic drug could cause problems regarding effectiveness.[4][5][6]
  • During this switch you could monitor ECG, especially in patients prone to QT-conduction problems.
  • There is a possibility of QT interval prolongation.[7]
    StartStandDownClozapine.jpg
Nietinrijdenbord.png — Clozapine
Eenrichtingbord.png — Olanzapine


  1. ↑ 1.01.11.21.3 KNMP; Informatorium Medicamentorum 2015; Monografie "olanzapine" (Dutch)
  2. ↑ Farmacotherapeutisch Kompas; Toxicologie (dutch)
  3. ↑ Woods SW Chlorpromazine equivalent doses for the newer atypical antipsychotics; J Clin Psychiatry 2003;64:663-667
  4. ↑ McEvoy J P et al., Effectiveness of clozapine versus olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone in patients with chronic schizophrenia who did not respond to prior atypical antipsychotic treatment. Am J Psychiatry. 2006;163:600–610.
  5. ↑ Lewis S W et al., Randomized Controlled Trial of Effect of Prescription of Clozapine Versus Other Second-Generation Antipsychotic Drugs in Resistant Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin vol.32 no.4 pp.715–723,2006.
  6. ↑ Agid O, Kapur S, Remington G, Emerging drugs for schizophrenia. Expert Opin Emerg Drugs. 2008 Sep;13(3):479-95.
  7. ↑ Stöllberger C, Huber JO, Finsterer J, Antipsychotic drugs and QT prolongation. Int Clin Psychopharmacol. 2005 Sep;20(5):243-51.
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