J. Deleon et al., TREATMENT OF POLYDIPSIA AND HYPONATREMIA IN PSYCHIATRIC-PATIENTS - CAN CLOZAPINE BE A NEW OPTION, Neuropsychopharmacology, 12(2), 1995, pp. 133-138
Polydipsia occurs frequently in chronic schizophrenic patients, some o
f whom develop intermittent hyponatremia. Most therapeutic efforts hav
e tried to control the hyponatremia. Four schizophrenic patients, foll
owed for more than one year, showed improvement on clozapine. Case 1 w
as an outpatient without history of hyponatremia who improved from pol
ydipsia and psychosis. The last three were inpatients with polydipsia,
intermittent hyponatremia, and psychosis who showed minimal improveme
nt of psychosis but significant decrease in polydipsia and wafer intox
ication. Case 2 relapsed to polydipsia when clozapine was discontinued
on two occasions. Case 3 demonstrated polyuria during 39% of days bef
ore clozapine and in 0% of days after two weeks of clozapine. In case
4, most baseline sodium levels were abnormal, but all became normal af
ter clozapine. A rime-series analysis for intervention effects showed
a significant effect of clozapine (p = .017). The limited information
provided by these case reports suggest the need for controlled studies
of the clozapine effect on polydipsic patients.