Lithium in the Treatment of Other Psychiatric and Nonpsychiatric Disorders

In addition to its well-studied use in affective disorders, lithium has been evaluated in a wide variety of other psychiatric and nonpsychiatric conditions. There are over 150 published reports of lithium trials in approximately 30 different conditions. Placebo-controlled studies have failed to confirm claims of lithium effect inpremenstrual tension1-6and have given negative results inobsessive-compulsive neurosis.7-13Ancedotal observations have indicated positive effects inanorexia nervosa, affective psychosis in organic brain syndrome, psychoses precipitated by drugs, pathological hypersexuality, and transvestism.14-25However, placebocontrolled studies are lacking. There have been 24 reports on the effects of lithium treatment on alcohol consumption in animals and man.26-49Of special interest here are the two recent double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, one American35and one British.37The American patients suffered from "chronic alcoholism associated with nonpsychotic depression." Of the alcoholics finishing the trial, those given lithium had significantly fewer drinking