[Prognostic factors in preventive therapy with lithium salts]

As a result of prophylactic therapy with lithium salts in 250 patients who were treated for approximately 4 years and who demonstrated distinct phasic affective disorders the authors established the following facts: factors of the nosological affinity of the affective psychoses, polarity in its development, the age of the patients and the duration of the therapy did not exert a significant influence on the results of prophylactic therapy with lithium, and therefore cannot be considered as prognostic factors.