[Effect of lithium on the course of endogenous psychoses (several clinico-statistical relationships)]

In 75 patients with a phasic development of endogenous psychoses the course of the disease before lithium treatment was characterized by statistically valid and successively increasing from attack to attack phenomena such as lengthening of attacks (phases) with a stable duration of the remissions and more frequent double phases. All of these phenomena were regarded by the authors as an unfavourable medicative pathomorphosis. The influence of lithium was expressed in the following symptoms: 1) prevention of hospitalization (56% of the cases); 2) significant shortening of the attacks (phases) and in some of the cases (19%)--their arrest; 3) transition from psychotic syndromes to cyclothymic; 4) a significant drop of double phases and a corresponding rise in the number of "pure" subdepressive states.