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Lithium for schizophrenia.

S Leucht¹, W Kissling, J McGrath

¹Klinikum rechts der Isar der TU-München, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Ismaningerstr. 22, München, GERMANY, 81675. Stefan.Leucht@lrz.tu-muenchen.de

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

|July 20, 2007

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

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Lithium is not effective as a sole treatment for schizophrenia. While lithium augmentation shows some response, it is inconclusive and requires further research for schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder treatment.

Area of Science:

Psychiatry
Pharmacology
Clinical Trials

Background:

Many individuals with schizophrenia exhibit inadequate responses to standard antipsychotic medications.
Lithium is frequently utilized as an adjunctive therapy in such cases.

Purpose of the Study:

To systematically review the efficacy and safety of lithium in treating schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like psychoses.
To evaluate lithium as a standalone treatment versus an add-on therapy to antipsychotics.

Main Methods:

Conducted a comprehensive search of the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group's register and other databases up to November 2006.
Included randomized controlled trials comparing lithium with antipsychotics, placebo, or no intervention.
Extracted and analyzed data using random effects models, relative risks, and weighted mean differences.

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Main Results:

No randomized trial evidence supports lithium as monotherapy for schizophrenia.
Lithium augmentation showed a potential for clinically significant response but was borderline significant when excluding schizoaffective disorders.
Higher dropout rates were observed in lithium groups (both monotherapy and augmentation), suggesting lower acceptability.

Conclusions:

Current evidence does not support lithium monotherapy for schizophrenia.
The efficacy of lithium augmentation is inconclusive, necessitating large, well-designed trials.
Future research should focus on specific patient groups, including those without affective symptoms and those with schizoaffective disorders.