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

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.