Clinical and EEG studies of zotepine, a thiepine neuroleptic, on schizophrenic patients.

The overall effect of zotepine was a "slightly improved" or better response in 20 patients (64.5%), "unchanged" in 10 (32.3%) and "worsened" in 1 (3.2%). Zotepine exhibited some degree of improvement in 54.5% of patients unresponsive to prior drugs. The onset of effect of zotepine was within one month in 19 patients. The improvement rate in the hebephrenic type (66.7%) was almost the same as in the paranoid type. The improvement rate classified by psychopathology was highest for hypobulia, followed by restlessness-excitement and hallucination, depressive mood, hypochondria and delusion. The side-effects were subjective complaints, such as general fatigue, dryness of mouth, sleepiness or fainting in a small number of cases. There was a slight increase in S-GPT in one patient and a slightly increased blood platelet count, also in one patient. Serial EEG changes associated with zotepine studied in another 17 chronic schizophrenics could be classified into three groups: those with increased slow waves, those with enhanced alpha waves and those with unchanged EEGs. There was a positive correlation between the incidence of slow waves and higher plasma levels of zotepine.