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Lithium Treatment of Chronic Cluster Headaches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Julian Lieb
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Medicine, and Director, The Dana Psychiatric Clinic, Yale–New Haven Hospital, 789 Howard Avenue, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. 06504
Arnold Zeff
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Medicine

Summary

On the basis of reports of reduced MAO activity in migraine and cluster headaches and on a report that lithium carbonate activates MAO, the authors administered lithium carbonate to two patients whose cluster headaches had brought them to the point of contemplating suicide. Both patients responded quite dramatically. Case 1 has now been virtually free of headaches for over two years and Case 2 has been in remission for over twelve months.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1978 

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