Abstract

An observational and comparative study was conducted to compare the functional outcome between the patients treated with conventional antipsychotic agent haloperidol and atypical antipsychotic agent Clozapine (clozaril). A total of 32 patients were included in the study with established schizophrenia according to (DSM iv). The data was processed on SSPE 10^th version. The primary outcome measure was the improvement of negative symptoms of schizophrenia and secondary outcome measure was to observe the superiority of the atypical drug Clozapine over conventional agent haloperidol regarding side effects. Patients were assessed at baseline, 2^nd and 8^th week, using four tools of assessment. For treatment group receiving haloperidol mean was 47.2 ± 11.50 at 8^th week and for Clozapine treatment group mean was 38.0 ± 15.39. The P values for all the parameters in the Clozapine group were significant as compared to haloperidol.

Key words: Clozapine, haloperidol, schizophrenia, dopamine receptors, antipsychotic agents.