Further Report on Prophylactic Lithium in Recurrent Affective Disorders

Abstract

Evidence continues to accumulate for the proposition that lithium salts have a marked prophylactic effect on recurrent affective disorders. An earlier paper (1), together with reports from Baastrup et al. (2) and Coppen et al. (3) indicate that this effect is a strong one. This paper reports the current position regarding a trial in one centre which has been in progress for eight years, in which the effect of lithium was investigated on the frequency of admission to and time spent in psychiatric hospitals.