Antinuclear antibodies, affective disorders and lithium therapy.

The prevalence of positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) was investigated in a group of patients suffering from recurrent affective disorders who had been treated for more than one year with lithium carbonate. There was no increase of ANA in these patients (8%) as compared with a group of patients suffering from affective disorders (7.5%), but untreated with lithium salts, or with the prevalence of ANA in the general population (9%) of the same age group.