# Brain Wave Patterns May Help Predict Response to Clozapine in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia
About one in three people with schizophrenia don’t respond adequately to standard antipsychotic medications—a challenging situation known as treatment-resistant schizophrenia. For these individuals, clozapine is the most effective option available, yet doctors often hesitate to prescribe it early due to concerns about side effects and required monitoring. Finding ways to identify who will benefit from clozapine could help patients access this life-changing medication sooner. A new study from India investigated whether brain wave measurements could serve as an early predictor of clozapine response.
The research team tracked 36 patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia who had never taken clozapine before, measuring their brain activity using quantitative electroencephalogram (QEEG)—a technology that records electrical patterns in the brain—at the start of treatment and again at three and six weeks. They also assessed psychiatric symptoms using standardized rating scales. Two-thirds of participants were classified as “responders,” meaning their symptoms improved by at least 20%. The key finding: responders showed significantly higher delta wave activity (slow brain waves associated with deep processing) specifically in the right temporal region of the brain at both the three- and six-week marks.
While this pattern of increased right temporal delta power distinguished responders from non-responders with moderate accuracy, the difference wasn’t strong enough to serve as a reliable clinical prediction tool on its own. The study suggests that specific brain wave changes do occur alongside successful clozapine treatment, but more research is needed before QEEG can be used routinely to guide treatment decisions. Still, this work represents an important step toward personalized psychiatry—eventually, such biomarkers could help clinicians identify the right patients for clozapine earlier, reducing years of ineffective treatment and improving outcomes for those living with treatment-resistant schizophrenia.
Source Information
Original Title: Right Temporal Delta Power in Quantitative Electroencephalogram as Predictor of Early Response to Clozapine in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia.
Authors: Batra S, Arun P, Arora P, Kaur S
Journal: Clinical EEG and neuroscience (Oct 2025)
PubMed ID: 41124326
DOI: 10.1177/15500594251389251
This summary was generated using AI to make recent geriatrics and frailty research more accessible. Please refer to the original article for complete details.
