Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:81-83
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Synergism of combined lithium-neuroleptic therapy: a double-blind, placebo-controlled case study
LB Bigelow, DR Weinberger and RJ Wyatt
The authors describe a longitudinal, placebo-controlled study of the
response to drug treatment of a 62-year-old schizoaffective patient
hospitalized for 40 years. While neither lithium nor a neuroleptic drug
alone was effective, both drugs administered simultaneously led to the
gradual extinction of a pronounced behavioral cycle and the disappearance
of manifest psychosis. The authors suggest a synergistic interaction
between the two drugs and stress the need for sustained trials of the
combination in patients with similar behavioral cycles.
