The Effectiveness of Lithium in Affective and Schizo-Affective Psychoses

Abstract

Recently, though the value of lithium salts has been supported by a number of careful studies (1–6), it has become increasingly evident that as a preventive of affective and schizoaffective psychoses the use of lithium is far from being universally effective and that it does not always lead to a complete disappearance of phases and attacks (7–8). The most generally held view (9–13) of lithium as a prophylactic drug is that it is of most value in preventing the recurrent affective attacks of patients with manic-depressive psychosis and cyclothymia.