Talk:Lithium (medication)

Effectiveness of Lithium therapy
Regarding the removal of "It is the only antidepressant effective in treating the manic episodes seen in bipolar disorder." Lithium is not an anti-depressant. Lithium is also not effective in quelling manic episodes in progress despite the claim in Goodwin and Jamison's outdated 1991 edition of Manic Depression.

Has anyone seen scientifically valid primary studies on the effectiveness of lithium for managing manic depression? I have not and it was ineffective during my decade long experience with lithium. See the "Patient Notes" at the end of the article.

Please see:
 * McIntyre RS, Mancini DA, Parikh S, Kennedy SH. "Lithium revisited." Can J Psychiatry. 2001 May;46(4):322-7.
 * Bowden CL, Brugger AM, Swann AC, Calabrese JR, Janicak PG, Petty F, and others. Efficacy of divalproex vs lithium and placebo in the treatment of mania. JAMA 1994;271:918–24.

This is just a start on the literature: the first reference is a review of the state of the art as of 2001.

Note that not everyone responds to the same drugs; many lithium non-responders are moved to other drugs for this reason. -- The Anome 21:12, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)


 * I understand that it is considered the mood stabiliser of choice by most specialists in bipolar disorder, because it is the best documented, and it is believed to be effective for the highest proportion of patients. Nonetheless, the fact that the effective dosage of lithium is so close to the level at which it becomes dangerously toxic is a serious concern with the medication -- not a purely intellectual concern for me since my father died of a lithium overdose -- and the article should bring attention to this.  Charles Stewart 12:50, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)


 * Lithium salts, with the exception of lithium orotate, have a narrow therapeutic/toxic ratio -- OK, I missed this first read. This section might do with some changes to avoid unnecessarily technical terms  Charles Stewart 12:56, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

McKnight 2012 study
Any thoughts on this 2012 systematic review study? It seems quite good and could be incorporated into the article. I will see if I find time to do it later, but if I don't, I will already leave the reference here:



−Arthurfragoso (talk) 20:25, 6 May 2022 (UTC)

"Lithium salt" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Lithium salt and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 October 27 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. -- Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she&#124;they&#124;xe) 23:45, 27 October 2022 (UTC)

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