Use of Clozapine in Childhood Schizophrenia

Childhood onset schizophrenia is a rare disorder whose prognosis is generally worse than that in the adult onset type of schizophrenia. Conventional neuroleptics have yielded inconsistent results with the risk of exposing the child to extrapyramidal and cognitive adverse effects which could interfere with proper development of the child. Effective and safe use of clozapine in children with schizophrenia has been reported. This drug is recently introduced in India and reports of its use in children are yet to come from this part of the world. This case report is on the effective and safe use of clozapine in a girl child with schizophrenia who became ill at 9 years of age.