Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T03:44:42.064Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lithium Treatment in Post-psychotic Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Daniel P. Van Kammen ,
Paul E. Alexander  and
William E. Bunney Jr.
Daniel P. Van Kammen
Affiliation:
Unit on Neuropsychopharmacology, Biological Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014, USA
Paul E. Alexander
Affiliation:
Section on Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02906, USA
William E. Bunney Jr.
Affiliation:
Biological Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Six of eleven drug-free schizophrenic patients who were depressed following remission of their illness showed a significant decrease in their depressive symptomatology during a double-blind, placebo substitution lithium trial. Traditional indicators of prognosis did not predict lithium response in this small sample; the schizophrenic patients tolerated the lithium well. Lithium should be studied further in a larger patient sample as an adjunct in the treatment of post-psychotic depression, which frequently is treatment resistant.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 136 , Issue 5 , May 1980 , pp. 479 - 485
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, R., Taylor, M. A. & Gaztanga, P. (1974) Manic-depressive illness and paranoid schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 31, 640–2.Google Scholar
Alexander, P. E., van Kammen, D. P. & Bunney, W. E. Jr. (1979) Lithium in psychotic schizophrenic patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 283–7.Google Scholar
Bowers, M. B. & Astrachan, B. M. (1967) Depression in acute schizophrenic psychosis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 976–81.Google Scholar
Bunney, W. E. Jr. & Hamburg, D. A. (1963) Methods for reliable longitudinal observations of behavior. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9, 280–94.Google Scholar
Cade, J. F. J. (1949) Lithium salts in the treatment of psychotic excitement. Medical Journal of Australia, 2, 349–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carpenter, W. T. Jr., Strauss, J. S. & Bartko, J. S. (1973) Flexible system for the diagnosis of schizophrenia: report from the WHO International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia. Science, 182, 1275–8.Google Scholar
Docherty, J. P., van Kammen, D. P., Siris, S. G. & Marder, S. R. (1978) Stages of onset of schizophrenic psychosis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 420–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Donlon, P. T. & Blacker, K. H. (1973) Stages of schizophrenia decompensation and reintegration. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 157, 200–8.Google Scholar
Forssman, H. & Wålinder, S. (1969) Lithium treatment or atypical indication. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 207, 34–9.Google Scholar
Goodwin, F. K. & Post, R. M. (1974) Brain serotonin, affective illness and antidepressant drugs. CSF studies with probenecid. In Serotonin New Vistas (ed. Costa, E., Gessa, G. L. and Sandler, M.). New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, G., Gershon, S. & Hekimian, L. J. (1968) Controlled evaluation of lithium and chlorpromazine in the treatment of manic states: An interim report. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 9, 563–73.Google Scholar
Kayton, L., Beck, J. & Koh, S. (1976) Postpsychotic state, convalescent environment, and therapeutic relationship in schizophrenic outcome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 1269–73.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, B. L. (1977) Postpsychotic depression and the need for personal significance. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 427–9.Google Scholar
Mayer-Gross, W. (1920) Über die Stellungsnahme auf abgelaufenen akuten Psychose. Zeitschrift für die gsamte Neurologic und Psychiatrie, 60, 160–212.Google Scholar
McGlashan, T. H. & Carpenter, W. T. (1976a) An investigation of the postpsychotic depressive syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 14–19.Google Scholar
McGlashan, T. H. & Carpenter, W. T. (1976b) Postpsychotic depression in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 231–9.Google Scholar
Perris, C. (1978) Morbidity suppressive effect of lithium carbonate in cycloid psychosis. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 328–31.Google Scholar
Petursson, H. (1976) Lithium treatment of a patient with periodic catatonia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 54, 248–53.Google Scholar
Phillips, L. (1953) Case history data and prognosis in schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 117, 515–25.Google Scholar
Prien, R. F., Point, P. & Caffey, E. M. (1972) A comparison of lithium carbonate and chlorpromazine in the treatment of excited schizoaffective patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 27, 182–9.Google Scholar
Rada, R. T. & Donlon, P. T. (1975) Depression and the acute schizophrenic process. Psychosomatics, 16, 116–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Semrad, E. V. (1966) Long-term Therapy of Schizophrenia. In: Psychoneuroses and Schizophrenia (ed. Usdin, E. L.). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippencott Co, p 155.Google Scholar
Sheard, M. H. (1975) Lithium in the treatment of aggression. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 160, 108–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shopsin, B., Kim, S. S. & Gershon, S. (1971) A controlled study of lithium vs. chlorpromazine in acute schizophrenics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 119, 435–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Small, J. G., Kellams, J. J. & Milstein, V. et al (1975) A placebo-controlled study of lithium combined with neuroleptics in chronic schizophrenic patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 1315–71.Google ScholarPubMed
Sovner, R. D. & McHugh, P. R. (1974) Lithium in the treatment of periodic catatonia. A case report. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 158, 214–21.Google Scholar
Spitzer, K. L., Endicott, J. E. & Robins, E. (1975) Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for a Selected Group of Functional Disorders, New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Spitzer, K. L., Endicott, J. E. & Robins, E. (1977) Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for a Selected Group of Functional Disorders. New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Steinberg, H. R., Green, R. & Durell, J. (1967) Depression occurring during the course of recovery from schizophrenic symptoms. American Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 699–702.Google Scholar
Stephens, J., Astrup, C. & Mangrum, H. H. (1966) Prognostic factors in recovered and deteriorated schizophrenics. American Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 1116–21.Google Scholar
Stephens, J., Astrup, C. (1972) The prediction of outcome in schizophrenia: I. Characteristics of outcome. Archives of General Psychiatry, 27, 739–46.Google Scholar
Stephens, J., Astrup, C. (1974) The prediction of outcome in schizophrenia: II. Relationships between predictor and outcome variables. Archives of General Psychiatry, 31, 37–42.Google Scholar
Tupin, J. P., Smith, D. B. & Clanon, T. L. et al (1973) The long-term use of lithium in aggressive prisoners. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 14, 311–17.Google Scholar
Vaillant, G. E. (1963) The natural history of the remitting schizophrenias. American Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 367–76.Google Scholar
van Kammen, D. P. & DeFraites, E. G. (1979) Lithium Treatment in Schizophrenia—A Review of Treatent and Prophylaxis in Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorders and Periodic Catatonia. In: Lithium, Controversies and Unresolved Issues (ed. Kline, N., Gershon, S. and Schou, M.). New York: Excerpta Medica, in press.Google Scholar
van Kammen, D. P. & Murphy, D. L. (1978) Prediction of imipramine antidepressant response by a one-day d-amphetamine trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 1179–83.Google Scholar
Wald, D. & Lerner, J. (1978) Lithium in the treatment of periodic catatonia: A case report. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 751–2.Google ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.