American Journal of Psychiatry 1981-01-01

Synergism of combined lithium-neuroleptic therapy: a double-blind, placebo-controlled case study.

L B Bigelow, D R Weinberger, R J Wyatt

Index: Am. J. Psychiatry 138(1) , 81-3, (1981)

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Abstract

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.