NATION : U.S. Approves Schizophrenia Drug
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WASHINGTON — The federal government approved a drug today to treat schizophrenia patients not helped by other medications, deciding that its benefits outweigh toxic side effects.
The Food and Drug Administration emphasized that clozapine is not a cure for schizophrenia, the mental disorder in which a person loses touch with reality.
Clozapine was first evaluated in the early 1960s, but its development was largely abandoned in the United States when it was shown to pose a high risk of seizures and a serious blood disorder called agranulocytosis. Such problems still exist with clozapine; test data submitted to the FDA show that about 1% of patients develop agranulocytosis.
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