[Effects of lithium on normal psychic functions as a restriction on prophylactic use]

Within the context of psychological research on the mechanism of lithium prophylaxis mainly three questions are to be raised and hopefully answered: a) Can psychic effects of lithium be demonstrated during the free interval of manic-depressive patients under long-term lithium medication? b) Supposed that such lithium-induced effects could be demonstrated during the free interval, do they possess any significance for the prophylactic effect? c) Supposed that such prophylactically significant effects exist, do they refer to typical properties of the premorbid personality in which subjects with affective psychoses differ from normal subjects? A double-blind study in 14 manic-depressive patients during the free interval showed effects of lithium on learning, free recall, experience of time, and visual perception. The direction of the effects, i.e, increase or decrease versus corresponding values obtained under placebo, seems to be determined by the individual personality.