This article was published on July 28, 2022.
Clozapine is a very important medication for the treatment of schizophrenia because:
– It is the only antipsychotic that may work when other antipsychotics have not.
– It has an anti-suicide effect in persons with schizophrenia who have significant suicidal ideation or behavior.
It is not easy to find a clinician who prescribes clozapine
This is because to prescribe clozapine:
– The clinician must be registered with the clozapine Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program (website).
– The clinician must have knowledge of special issues related to prescribing clozapine, monitoring requirements, and management of its potential side effects.
In my experience, it can be very frustrating for both families and clinicians when a patient clearly needs to be on clozapine, but none of the local clinicians prescribes it.
A resource that can help in finding a clozapine prescriber
The CureSZ Foundation (website) is a non-profit organization co-founded by Henry Nasrallah, MD, a leading schizophrenia expert (who is also on the Editorial Board for this website), and Bethany Yeiser, a person with schizophrenia who derived tremendous benefit from treatment with clozapine.
The CureSZ Foundation maintains a list with the names and addresses of clinicians who have expertise in prescribing clozapine. We can find that list at THIS LINK.
While most of the clinicians in that list are in the United States (organized by state), it does include clinicians in other countries as well.
Mental health clinicians who have a patient with schizophrenia who may benefit from clozapine but don’t prescribe it themselves should consider using the CureSZ Foundation database to find a clozapine prescriber.
And, clinicians who do prescribe clozapine but have not yet added their names to the CureSZ Foundation list are urged to register themselves at THIS LINK.
Related Pages
Clozapine (Clozaril®): Basic Information
Potential side effects of clozapine (Clozaril®) handout
Clozapine for schizophrenia in children?
Changes in rules about clozapine
Key information about seizures with clozapine
Are the clozapine-norclozapine ratio and norclozapine level useful?
How to check and interpret clozapine levels
Can oral contraceptives affect clozapine levels?
Clozapine-induced hypersalivation (sialorrhea)
Clozapine-induced hypersalivation (sialorrhea): Treatment
Benign ethnic neutropenia (BEN)
Caffeine can significantly change serum clozapine levels
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Could you let me know how recently your list of clozapine-prescribing psychiatrists or NP’s has been updated? Is there any other listing of such providers to which you can direct me? We need to find someone in or near Berkeley, California
I checked with the CureSZ Foundation that maintains this database of clinicians who prescribe clozapine. They try to keep the database up-to-date as best as they can but a few of the clinicians have not been checked on for a couple of years. My view is that we should consider the clinicians listed to still be prescribing clozapine because I hope that that very few, if any, of them have just recently stopped prescribing clozapine.