The Delineation of an MMPI Symptom Pattern Unique to Lithium Responders

The author attempted to determine whether the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) would be sensitive to a symptom pattern unique to lithium-responsive patients regardless of diagnosis. Statistical analyses of the MMPI scores of lithium responders, lithium nonresponders, and a group of patients receiving other psychotropic drugs revealed that the depression, psychasthenia, mania, and social introversion scale scores significantly differentiated the lithium response and lithium nonresponse groups. No strong indications of significant difference were found between the MMPI scale scores of the lithium nonresponse and psychotropic groups. The results suggest that there is a lithium-responsive syndrome that exhibits a distinctive symptom pattern regardless of its varying phenomenological features in different individuals.