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Clinical Atlas Prestige · Evidence-first

Psych VivasGeneral adult psychiatry — psychotic disorders

Psych Vivas · General adult psychiatry — psychotic disorders

Schizophrenia spectrum — structured clinical viva

Fellowship viva covering relapse after non-adherence, risk, LAI versus clozapine decision-making, InterSePT and TRRIP concepts, and cardiometabolic care.

clinical
On this page & tools

Target exams

FRANZCPMRCPsychABPNMD-DNB

Target exams

FRANZCPMRCPsychABPNMD-DNB
Prompt
You are the psychiatry registrar on call. A 26-year-old man with a 3-year history of schizophrenia is brought after stopping his oral olanzapine 2 months ago. He is paranoid, responding to internal stimuli, and expresses passive death wishes without a plan. His mother asks why 'the strong tablet' (clozapine) was never started. Discuss your assessment, acute plan, evidence for clozapine in treatment resistance and suicidality, and physical health priorities.

Interpretation

Reveal interpretation

This is a relapse of schizophrenia driven by non-adherence, with passive death wishes requiring structured suicide risk assessment (protective factors, intent, plan, means, command content, substance use, hopelessness, support). Acute priorities: safety, re-engagement, restart of antipsychotic (consider LAI if non-adherence is the pattern), medical review, and collaborative crisis planning with his mother as appropriate under privacy law. [1]

Whether clozapine is indicated depends on treatment resistance versus non-adherence. If he has never had two adequate adherent trials, he may not yet meet TRRIP resistance criteria — the first task is an adequate adherent trial (often supported by LAI). If he has already failed two adequate trials when adherent, clozapine is the evidence-based next step.[1]

InterSePT supports clozapine over olanzapine for suicidal behaviour in schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder — relevant given death wishes, but acute risk management still requires means restriction, follow-up intensity and possible admission.[2]

Physical health: weight, BMI, glucose, lipids, smoking, ECG; olanzapine’s metabolic burden; long-term mortality driven heavily by cardiovascular disease — FIN11 informs the mortality conversation without ignoring metabolic harm.[3]

Key points

Separate non-adherence from true resistance

LAI strategies address adherence; clozapine addresses TRRIP-defined resistance. Do not conflate them.

InterSePT is the suicide-specific clozapine trial

Clozapine reduced suicidal behaviour versus olanzapine in high-risk schizophrenia spectrum patients.

Physical health is exam content

Metabolic monitoring and cardiovascular risk reduction are core psychiatry, not optional medicine.
[1]

References

  1. [1]Howes OD, McCutcheon R, Agid O, et al. Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia: Treatment Response and Resistance in Psychosis (TRRIP) Working Group Consensus Guidelines on Diagnosis and Terminology Am J Psychiatry, 2017.PMID 27919182
  2. [2]Meltzer HY, Alphs L, Green AI, et al. Clozapine treatment for suicidality in schizophrenia: International Suicide Prevention Trial (InterSePT) Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2003.PMID 12511175
  3. [3]Tiihonen J, Lönnqvist J, Wahlbeck K, et al. 11-year follow-up of mortality in patients with schizophrenia: a population-based cohort study (FIN11 study) Lancet, 2009.PMID 19595447