© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd., Royal College of Psychiatrists, & British Psychological Society
Therapeutics
Review: in people with schizophrenia, lithium is ineffective as sole therapy, while evidence on augmenting antipsychotics with lithium is inconclusive
Leucht S, Kissling W, McGrath J. Lithium for schizophrenia revisited: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Clin Psychiatry 2004;65:177–86.[Medline]
Q Is lithium, as a sole agent or an adjunct to antipsychotic drugs, effective in the treatment of schizophrenia?
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Design:
Systematic review with meta-analysis.
Data sources:
Cochrane Schizophrenia Group Register of RCTs (searched to March 2002). Authors of included studies were contacted to obtain original patient data.
Study selection and analysis:
Eligible studies were RCTs, in any language, examining lithium as a sole or supplementary treatment in people with schizophrenia or related disorders. Study quality was assessed: only studies with a low or moderate risk of bias (according to categories described in the Cochrane Collaboration Handbook) were included. For dichotomous data, the relative risk (RR) was calculated for each study; for single studies the Mantel-Haenszel fixed effect model for homogenous outcomes and the Der-Simonian-Laird random effects model for heterogeneous outcomes were used; for the analysis of continuous outcomes tentative standardised mean differences were calculated. Heterogeneity was examined by inspecting graphs and a 
2 test of heterogeneity. People with schizoaffective disorder or predominant affective disorder were excluded in a second analysis
Westfälische Klinik Marsberg, Marsberg, Germany
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Schizophrenia spectrum
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Drugs: psychiatry
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Depressive disorder
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Epidemiology
- Clinical trials (epidemiology)
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