Clozapine: Acquittal of the usual suspect

This report concerns the case of a 29-year-old male patient suffering from severe psychotic illness who had been satisfactorily treated with clozapine for 4 months. Clozapine had also been successfully administered during a psychotic episode 5 years previously. Though symptoms of psychosis were successfully controlled following the most recent psychotic episode, a medical consultation assessed that exacerbation of pancreatitis warranted discontinuation of the current antipsychotic treatment regime. Following a series of unsuccessful courses of neuroleptic medication, a magnetic resonance cholangiopancreaticography (MRCP) revealed marked cholecystolithiasis suggesting a biliary pancreatitis. Clozapine treatment was readministered following cholecystectomy. After 4 weeks of antipsychotic treatment the patient was discharged from hospital on clozapine monotherapy.