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General Pharmacology of Clozapine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

D. M. Coward
D. M. Coward*
Affiliation:
Sandoz Pharma Ltd, Clinical Research and Development, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
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Abstract

Clozapine shows neuroleptic-like inhibition of locomotor activity and conditioned avoidance responding in rodents, although tolerance develops on repeated treatment. EEG-based studies show strong arousal-inhibiting activity of clozapine as well as neuroleptic-like effects on both caudate spindle duration and rat sleep-waking patterns. Effects such as apomorphine blockade, catalepsy and strong increases of plasma prolactin levels are not seen, however, and chronic treatment does not lead to dopamine D2 receptor supersensitivity. Binding studies show clozapine's highest affinities to be for dopamine D4, 5-HT1c, 5-HT2, α1, muscarinic and histamine H1 receptors, but moderate affinity is also seen for many other receptor subtypes. Microdialysis studies indicate a preferential interaction with striatal D1 receptors, whereas autoradiographical studies indicate upregulation of D1 and downregulation of 5-HT2 receptors after chronic clozapine. Clarification of the mechanisms underlying clozapine's special attributes is often hampered by a failure to examine compounds which show a close chemical relationship to clozapine, but which produce extrapyramidal side-effects in man, such as clothiapine, loxapine and amoxapine.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue S17: Clozapine - The Atypical Antipsychotic , May 1992 , pp. 5 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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