Lithium helps reduce the severity and frequency of mania. It may also help relieve or prevent bipolar depression. Studies show that lithium can significantly reduce suicide risk. Lithium also helps prevent future manic and depressive episodes.
It is not known how lithium works to stabilize a person's mood. However, it does act on the central nervous system. It helps you to have more control over your emotions and helps you cope better with the problems of living.
Lithium remains first choice as maintenance treatment for bipolar affective disorder. Yet, about half of all individuals may stop their treatment at some point, despite lithium's proven benefits concerning the prevention of severe affective episodes and suicide.
Lithium helps reduce feelings of mania — excited, high mood, distracted. It also helps to treat bipolar episodes.
Some side effects are common when people first start lithium, such as: Tremors (shakiness), especially in the hands. Dry mouth. Feeling thirstier.
Lithium improves the body's ability to synthesize serotonin. This simply means that the body's levels of serotonin increase in response to lithium, which has the effect of improving mood and reducing feelings of anxiousness.
Adverse effects were the most common cause for lithium discontinuation. Among the adverse effects, diarrhoea, tremor, creatinine increase, polyuria/polydipsia/diabetes insipidus and weight gain were the top five reasons for discontinuing lithium.
Studies have shown that the average lithium-induced weight gain is between 4.85 and 22 lbs. Also, keep in mind that different causes contribute to lithium-induced weight gain - we will discuss them in more detail below.
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The target level for lithium is 0.6, to 0.8 for depression as well as for the maintenance phase. You want to keep it in that sweet spot. If the patient has active mania, you should go up to 0.8 to 1.2.
Lithium. Lithium is a mood stabilising medication commonly used to treat bipolar disorder. It can be prescribed as: lithium carbonate (Camcolit, Priadel, Liskonum)
Approximately 25% of people gain weight from taking lithium, according to a review article published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 1 After analyzing all relevant published medical studies, the authors reported an average weight gain of 10 to 26 pounds among those who experience this troubling side effect.
It takes about 1 to 3 weeks for lithium to show the effects and remission of symptoms. Many patients show only a partial reduction of symptoms, and some may be nonresponders. In cases where the patient does not display an adequate response, consider monitoring plasma levels, and titrating the dose.
Lithium Orotate Dosage
It's common for adults to start with 10 mg daily for the first week or two, and then increase to 20 mg daily if needed and well-tolerated. Side effects are fairly uncommon at these low doses, though occasionally it seems to cause slight sedation.
Although lithium has been used in significantly longer-term treatment than any other mood stabilizer, long-term therapy is not devoid of adverse effects, the most important of which is kidney damage.
It may also help relieve or prevent bipolar depression. Studies show that lithium can significantly reduce suicide risk. Lithium also helps prevent future manic and depressive episodes. As a result, it may be prescribed for long periods of time (even between episodes) as maintenance therapy.
Results indicate that such a course of lithium in normals induces dysphoric mood change and psychomotor slowing, without significant relationship to either plasma or RBC lithium concentrations.
Lethargy, dysphoria, a loss of interest in interacting with others and the environment, and a state of increased mental confusion were reported. No generalized effects were found in the responses to the personality inventories. 1. 2.
What is traditionally considered subtherapeutic doses of lithium remains an effective treatment option for ADHD. Numerous studies show that lithium effectively reduces symptoms of ADHD, such as anger, aggression, focus, and concentration. These studies focus on pharmaceutical (high-dose) lithium.
The reputation that lithium got for being "toxic," "mind numbing," and so forth, certainly those things have an element of truth to them. But they come from earlier studies where people were kept at a much higher doses and blood levels of lithium.
Lithium may cause problems with kidney health. Kidney damage due to lithium may include acute (sudden) or chronic (long-term) kidney disease and kidney cysts.
Like many other antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs, lithium may also cause sexual and erectile dysfunction [20,21]. About one-third of bipolar or schizoaffective patients receiving lithium report sexual dysfunction [20,21].
Hair loss may occur in 10% of patients treated with lithium. Reducing lithium levels to 0.75 mEq/L and correcting thyroid disfunction may help to prevent hair loss. Consider supplementing with zinc and selenium to treat hair loss.
Official answer. There are no specific dietary requirements while taking Lithium. Generally you can eat what you like. However Lithium requires consistent monitoring to ensure you maintain the right balance of lithium in the blood to avoid the dangerous condition of lithium toxicity.