Do Miracles Really Happen?

“I got my son back,” a mother said to me recently, choking back tears. “Tasks and Clozaril are miracles. Don’t let (mental illness) take him away again.” In all my years in mental health, Clozaril (generic name: clozapine) is, far and away, the most powerful, most effective anti-psychotic medication on the market. Clozaril, however, has several nasty side-effects.

The most serious side-effect is how it decreases white-blood-cell counts. For the most part, this is a modest phenomenon which causes no real health risk. However, in early trials, some patients white-blood-cell count was so low that they became incredibly vulnerable to infections, and two patients even died. This resulted in rules that force doctors to take patients of Clozaril when their white-blood-cell counts drop below a certain level, often forfeiting all the progress the patient has achieved.


Remember the movie, “The Awakening,”? Patients with a condition causing them to seem retarded and even comatose miraculously came to life as the result of an obscure treatment. But the treatment could not be sustained and ultimately, the patients drifted back to their previous condition. Can you imagine getting your loved one back and then having to see them taken away again? An almost identical thing happens to some people taking Clorazil. It is the most tragic and heart-wrenching thing I have ever seen.

A less dramatic but more common side effect is that Clozaril is a powerful appetite stimulant. Without rigorous diet-management, Clozaril can cause extraordinary weight gain, leading to diabetes, hypertension, etc. Not surprisingly, major weight gain is a powerful deterrent to taking Clozaril.

It’s NOT good enough to just put people on a miracle drug when they will eventually be taken back by their psychosis. What’s needed?- Monthly blood testing which is extremely expensive- Rigorous diet-management which is extremely expensive- Drug monitoring which is extremely expensive.

Competing drugs, currently available, are not as effective, in reducing psychosis, as Clozaril. We are desperate for an alternative. Yes, management is expensive but is it worth it? You decide… Someone with mental illness is no less valuable than you are but that’s just my opinion.