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Changes in the Diagnoses of the Functional Psychoses Associated with the Introduction of Lithium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Gordon Parker ,
Maryanne O'Donnell  and
Stephen Walter
Gordon Parker*
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Randwick 2031, Australia
Maryanne O'Donnell
Affiliation:
Department of Liaison Psychiatry, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick 2031, Australia
Stephen Walter
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
*
∗Correspondence
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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.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 146 , Issue 4 , April 1985 , pp. 377 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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