Changes in the Diagnoses of the Functional Psychoses Associated with the Introduction of Lithium
- 1 April 1985
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal College of Psychiatrists in The British Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 146 (4), 377-382
- https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.146.4.377
Abstract
Summary: Diagnostic patterns for schizophrenia and affective psychosis were examined for all admissions to psychiatric facilities in New South Wales over a ten-year (1967–1977) period, before, during, and after lithium carbonate had been established as an accepted treatment. While the proportion of functional psychoses to total admissions remained relatively constant over the study, there was a relative decrease in schizophrenia, and a relative increase in the affective psychosis group. Analyses of sub-groups suggested, after controlling for the effects of time, that the introduction of lithium has been associated with an increase in diagnoses of mania and a decrease in diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia, both for first admissions and for readmissions.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
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- Lithium and the changing incidence of maniaPsychological Medicine, 1981
- Diagnostic Criteria of American and British PsychiatristsArchives of General Psychiatry, 1971