Abstract
Patients with bipolar affective disorder and who were maintained on long lithium prophylaxis were evaluated retrospectively regarding response to lithium. Good responders to lithium prophylaxis were compared to non-responders and to normal controls on platelet MAO activity, and on psychological variables (Eysenck's extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and lie scale; Foulds' extrapunitiveness, intropunitiveness and dominance). Lithium responders, non-responders and normal controls had similar platelet MAO activity. There was a tendency for higher plasma lithium levels to be associated with higher platelet MAO activity in male patients but not in females. Lithium non-responders exhibited significant correlations between their platelet MAO activity and their test scores on psychoticism, and extraversion. Lithium non-responders, compared to responders and normals, showed abnormal personality profiles on neuroticism, and dominance.
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