Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:800-803
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
Cognitive and affective responses to lithium in patients with organic brain syndrome
KH Williams and G Goldstein
The authors describe a series of patients with organic brain syndrome who
showed a dramatic clinical response to lithium carbonate therapy. None of
the patients had been diagnosed as manic-depressive. Most had extensive
psychiatric treatment experiences and had been given both affective and
cognitive diagnoses. Six of the eight patients also qualified for the
diagnosis of alcoholism. They had been treated with a wide variety of
psychotherapeutic medications. Lithium was found to be rapidly and
dramatically effective in patients with static lesions of the central
nervous system who showed a combination of dementia and agitated
depression.
