Seven years of treatment with quetiapine: a case report Sette anni di trattamento con quetiapina: a case report

Rivista di psichiatria, 2002, 37, 1 35 Summary. Introduction. We present the case of a 34-year old man who was affected at the age of 20 by a “paranoid-type schizophrenia”. He was treated for years, unsuccessfully, with conventional neuroleptics. Method. At the age of 27 years the patient began treatment with quetiapine, in the context of a research protocol being carried out at the Psychiatric Department of the University of Turin. Given the positive and indeed curative therapeutic effects of the treatment, it was decided to continue the treatment beyond the period of the trial (52 weeks). The quetiapine was first requested from the manufacturer for compassionate use; later the Ministry of Health was asked to authorize the import of this compound from Great Britain, a country in which quetiapine was already registered for use and available on the market. Finally, the drug also became commercially available in Italy (May 2000), so the therapy could be continued and maintained at all times using the same dose regimen. Result and conclusion. The treatment had good results and is still going on.