Should a higher dose of antipsychotic drugs be administered to a patient with chronic schizophrenia?

Question

Hello doctor,

My brother has been having schizophrenia from the last three years. He is on medication from last two years. Last year he had around 10 ECT in six months and he was in a controlled situation. But suddenly he stopped medicines for two to three weeks. So again a episode of schizophrenia started. So this month our doctors have started ECT again along with a dose of Clozapine. Currently he is taking three tablets of Clozapine 12.5 mg and two tablets of Relinase 1.5 mg.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

There are chances that he is going into relapse state. Scizophrenia is a serious and chronic mental illness. The patient needs to be followed up regularly by doctor. I would suggest you not to increase the dose of medicines on your own because though very effective but Clozapine has various side effects. Some of them are life threatening, but the patient can become nicotine addict more easily due to it's mood elevating effect..