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Aspiration pneumonia associated with clozapine
Author(s) -
Lam Y. W. Francis
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the brown university psychopharmacology update
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7532
pISSN - 1068-5308
DOI - 10.1002/pu.30176
Subject(s) - clozapine , sialorrhea , medicine , aspiration pneumonia , pneumonia , adverse effect , intensive care medicine , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , anesthesia , psychiatry
Clozapine is effective in managing patients with treatment‐resistant schizophrenia. Clinicians who use this drug are generally well aware of the need to monitor patients for infrequent but well‐recognized and potentially life‐threatening adverse effects, such as agranulocytosis. Clozapine also has more common adverse effects that are generally considered to entail less medical risk, such as sialorrhea (excessive salivation). Some reports suggest a risk of aspiration pneumonia related to clozapine‐induced sialorrhea. 1,2,3 A clinical report recently described an occurrence of aspiration pneumonia as a result of clozapine exposure. 4