A pilot study to investigate the treatment of anogenital warts with Topical Lithium Succinate cream (8% lithium succinate, 0.05% zinc sulphate).

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Lithium.

Assessment of the number, location, size and area of coverage of the warts was made by the clinician at baseline, weeks 2, 4, 6 and 12.

Compliance to the study protocol following cessation of treatment at week 4 was extremely poor.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 101 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, placebo-controlled and pilot study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Lithium group and the comparison group should start out alike.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Lithium group a baseline to be compared against.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Lithium study would be practical.

What Was Measured

Assessment of the number, location, size and area of coverage of the warts was made by the clinician at baseline, weeks 2, 4, 6 and 12.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Administration, Topical, Condylomata Acuminata, Drug Combinations, Lithium, Ointments, Organometallic Compounds and Pilot Projects.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, placebo-controlled and pilot study of Lithium in 101 patients.

The publication is from 1997 (International journal of STD & AIDS), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.