Patterns of Concomitant Psychotropic Medication use During a 2-Year Study Comparing Clozapine and Olanzapine for the Prevention of Suicidal Behavior

In this study, 479 patients received clozapine & 477 patients received olanzapine. Concomitant psychotropic medications were grouped into 4 classes: antipsychotics, antidepressants, sedatives/anxiolytics, & mood stabilizers. An analysis of covariance was performed to compare mean daily doses of concomitant psychotropic medications between the 2 groups over the 2-year treatment period. For each class, the mean daily dose was statistically significantly lower in the clozapine group. Analyses of concomitant psychotropic medication use by study intervals, suicide attempters versus nonattempters, study completers versus noncompleters, & geographic region resulted in similar findings. (11 refs.)