In addition to its well-studied use in affective disorders, lithium has been evaluated in a wide variety of other psychiatric and nonpsychiatric conditions. There are over 150 published reports of lithium trials in approximately 30 different conditions.

Placebo-controlled studies have failed to confirm claims of lithium effect in premenstrual tension^1-6 and have given negative results in obsessive-compulsive neurosis.^7-13 Ancedotal observations have indicated positive effects in anorexia nervosa, affective psychosis in organic brain syndrome, psychoses precipitated by drugs, pathological hypersexuality, and transvestism.^14-25 However, placebocontrolled studies are lacking.

There have been 24 reports on the effects of lithium treatment on alcohol consumption in animals and man.^26-49 Of special interest here are the two recent double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, one American³⁵ and one British.³⁷ The American patients suffered from "chronic alcoholism associated with nonpsychotic depression." Of the alcoholics finishing the trial, those given lithium had significantly fewer drinking