A review of clinical trials of lithium in neurology.

Lithium has been put to clinical trials in no less than fifteen neurological disorders. They are Huntington's chorea, tardive dyskinesia, spasmodic torticollis, Tourette's syndrome, L-dopa induced hyperkinesia and the "on-off" phenomenon in parkinsonism, organic brain disorders secondary to brain-injury, drug induced delusional disorders, migraine and cluster headache, periodic hypersomnolence, epilepsy, meniere's disease and periodic hypokalemic paralysis. This paper gives a brief summary of the clinical trials with lithium salts reported in the literature. There are encouraging results on the use of lithium in cluster headaches, cyclic form of migraine and hypomanic mood disorders due to organic brain disorders. The trials with lithium and amitriptyline in tardive dyskinesia needs independent confirmation. The effect of lithium on seizure disorders needs to be addressed too.