Double-Blind Trial of Lithium Carbonate and Haloperidol in Huntington's Chorea

Therapeutic Potential of Mood Stabilizers Lithium and Valproic Acid: Beyond Bipolar Disorder

“…One study found that patients in the early stages of the disease were more likely to benefit from lithium treatment (Foerster and Regli, 1977); in that study, lithium conferred beneficial mood-and temper-stabilizing effects. Combined therapy with lithium and neuroleptics has also proven to be beneficial in several patients with HD (Anden et al, 1973;Manyam and Bravo-Fernandez, 1973;Leonard et al, 1974Leonard et al, , 1975Schenk and Leijnse-Ybema, 1974). On the other hand, Therapeutic Potential of Mood Stabilizers VPA has been suggested as a rational choice as a neuroleptic therapy in HD treatment (Tremolizzo et al, 2007).…”

“…In some instances, lithium treatment, particularly when used as the sole therapeutic agent, even worsened motor and cognitive performance (Carman et al, 1974;Leonard et al, 1974). VPA has also been reported to have no beneficial effects (Symington et al, 1978) or to lead to a state of tolerance (Tan et al, 1976) on involuntary movements in patients with HD.…”

Treatment of Huntington's Disease

“…Dopamine antagonists (neuroleptics) are perhaps the most commonly considered agents in the management of chorea and psychosis in patients with HD, but few double-blind, placebo-controlled studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of these agents have been published [75][76][77]. None of the typical neuroleptics have been found to be effective in reducing chorea in placebo-controlled trials.…”

Lithium Carbonate in the Treatment of Movement Disorders

“…Their negative results may be the result of abrupt discontinuation of neuroleptics prior to lithium or a high level of serum lithium of 1.2 mEq/1 or the short duration of therapy of 3 weeks. These negative results were also substantiated by Leonard et al [1974] in a double blind study.…”