Clozapine-treated Patients Have Marked Gastrointestinal Hypomotility the Probable Basis of Life-threatening Gastrointestinal Complications: A Cross Sectional Study

摘要

BackgroundGastrointestinal side effects are particularly common with clozapine and occur with other antipsychotics, ranging from mild constipation to fatal bowel obstruction and/or ischemia. While this adverse-effect spectrum has been attributed to ‘gastrointestinal hypomotility’, gastrointestinal transit times in antipsychotic-treated patients have not previously been measured, making this mechanism speculative.