Variability of response to lithium augmentation in refractory depression.

@article{Price1986VariabilityOR,
  title={Variability of response to lithium augmentation in refractory depression.},
  author={Lawrence H Price and Dennis S. Charney and George R. Heninger},
  journal={The American journal of psychiatry},
  year={1986},
  volume={143 11},
  pages={
          1387-92
        }
}
Eighty-four patients with major depression refractory to a controlled antidepressant trial had lithium added to their ongoing treatment. Objective symptom ratings showed highly significant improvement in the sample as a whole. At discharge or after 24 days, 31% of the patients showed a marked response, 25% a partial response. Thus, 56% of patients had a significant positive response, while 44% were nonresponders. This study indicates that response to lithium augmentation may be quite variable… 
View on PubMed
doi.org
124 Citations
Background Citations
16
Methods Citations
2
Results Citations
4

124 Citations

Predictors of response to lithium augmentation in tricyclic antidepressant-resistant depression.

After lithium augmentation: a retrospective follow-up of patients with antidepressant-refractory depression.

Lithium antidepressant augmentation in TCA-refractory depression in adolescents.

Information from a retrospective chart review of 14 adolescents diagnosed with nonbipolar depression who were treated openly with a TCA/lithium combination after an inadequate response to a T CA alone is presented.

Lithium Carbonate Augmentation of Desipramine in Refractory Depression*

It is suggested that the unified 5-HT/NE hypothesis used in affective disorder could be applied in drug refractory depression and improved in tricyclic-resistant depressed patients.

The pharmacotherapy of depressive illness in adolescence: II. Effects of lithium augmentation in nonresponders to imipramine.

The antidepressant value of lithium augmentation was assessed in a 3-week open trial involving 24 adolescents who remained highly depressed after 6 weeks of treatment with imipramine hydrochloride, and it appears less efficacious overall in this age group than in adults.

Adding lithium to antidepressant therapy: factors related to therapeutic potentiation

Lithium’s Emerging Role in the Treatment of Refractory Major Depressive Episodes: Augmentation of Antidepressants

Augmentation of antidepressants with lithium is currently the best-evidenced augmentation therapy in the treatment of depressed patients who do not respond to antidepressants.

Lithium Augmentation in Antidepressant-Resistant Patients a Quantitative Analysis

The results support the case for lithium augmentation in treatment-resistant depression, but there remains considerable uncertainty over the duration of treatment necessary to see and sustain the treatment response.

Predicting outcome of lithium added to antidepressants in resistant depression.

Response to clomipramine after short course of lithium in treatment‐resistant depression: Does lithium have a ‘priming’ effect?

It is hypothesize that lithium may potentiate the antidepressant effect of tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) even if it is administered as a short course of treatment.
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 23 REFERENCES

Efficacy of lithium-tranylcypromine treatment in refractory depression.

Twelve inpatients with major depression refractory to at least two controlled antidepressant trials had tranylcypromine added to ongoing lithium treatment. Eleven patients showed reliable improvement…

Lithium potentiation of antidepressant treatment.

The response to lithium addition was more variable than described previously, and two patients showed sustained improvement, two showed transient improvement but then relapsed, two other cases with bipolar histories became manic, and three did not respond at all.

Mood response to methylphenidate and the Dexamethasone Suppression Test as predictors of treatment response to zimelidine and lithium in major depression

  • P. Joyce
  • Psychology, Medicine
    Biological Psychiatry
  • 1985

Controlled Studies of the Acute Antidepressant Effects of Lithium

Summary In two randomized double-blind controlled trials on 63 depressed female in-patients subject to recurrent affective disorder (bipolar and unipolar manic-depressive psychosis) lithium was shown…

Lithium augmentation of combined neuroleptic-tricyclic treatment in delusional depression.

The authors describe the results of a preliminary study of lithium augmentation in six patients with delusional depression who were unresponsive to combined neuroleptic-tricyclic treatment and discuss alternative mechanisms of lithium action in these patients.

Rapid Response to Lithium in Phenelzine Non-responders

Summary Three patients suffering from major depressive disorder with melancholia and unresponsive to a three-week trial of adequate dosage of phenelzine, received lithium. Each responded within a…

Lithium carbonate augmentation of antidepressant treatment. An effective prescription for treatment-refractory depression.

It is concluded that lithium carbonate does augment the antidepressant effect when added to the long-term antidepressant treatment of nonresponding patients.

Duration of antidepressant drug treatment. What is an adequate trial?

It was predicted, and found, that a significant proportion of patients who showed no clear-cut response at four weeks would show much improvement at six weeks in drug but not placebo conditions, and that this would be the case for patients receiving drug and patients receiving placebo.

Response to sequential administration of clomipramine and lithium carbonate in treatment-resistant depression.

This case would appear to describe the phenomenon previously reported, but is believed to be the first report of the use of clomipramine, a drug with predominantly serotonergic effects, in sequential combination with lithium carbonate in the treatment of resistant depression.

Lithium carbonate addition in tricyclic antidepressant-resistant unipolar depression. Correlations with the neurobiologic actions of tricyclic antidepressant drugs and lithium ion on the serotonin system.

It is proposed that the antidepressant effect of lithium addition in TCA-resistant patients might be mediated by enhancing serotonin neurotransmission.