The time has come for revising the rules of clozapine blood monitoring in Europe. A joint expert statement from the European Clozapine Task Force.

The European Clozapine Task Force is a group of psychiatrists and pharmacologists practicing in 18 countries under European Medicines Agency (EMA) regulation, who are deeply concerned about the underuse of clozapine in European countries. Although clozapine is the most effective antipsychotic for people with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, a large proportion of them do not have access to this treatment. Concerns about clozapine-induced agranulocytosis and stringent blood monitoring rules are major barriers to clozapine prescribing and use.

[The usefulness of therapeutic drug monitoring during treatment with second-generation antidepressants].

Background: Although there is clear evidence that therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) has beneficial effects for patients treated with tricyclic antidepressants, it is generally not recommended for second-generation antidepressants (SGA). However, it has been suggested that methodological shortcomings might influence the results in TDM studies with SGA.

Aim: A qualitative assessment of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that specifically investigated drug concentration-effect relationships of SGA in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) to analyze the potential benefit of TDM during treatment with these agents.

The association between aberrant salience and psychotic experiences in general population twins, and genetic vulnerability as a modifier.

Background: Previous studies assessing the hypothesis that the construct of 'aberrant salience' is associated with psychosis and psychotic symptoms showed conflicting results. For this reason, the association between measures to index aberrant salience and subclinical psychotic symptoms in a general population sample was analysed. In addition, genetic vulnerability was added to the analysis as a modifier to test the hypothesis that modification by genetic vulnerability may explain variability in the results.