What is Lithium Used For?
Lithium is a mood stabilizer and can aid to treat or protect against mania. It can likewise be used to minimize the frequency of anxiety episodes.


Take this drug as directed by your physician. It is necessary to drink lots of liquids while taking this medication. Lithium may communicate with specific medications that affect serotonin (such as antidepressants, SSRIs, MAO inhibitors). Tell your physician concerning every one of your medications.

Mood Conditions
Lithium is usually used to treat bipolar affective disorder, a mental disease that causes very fast shifts in between the severe state of minds of depression and mania. Bipolar disorder can make it difficult to live a typical life and can trigger significant problems in connections, work or institution. Lithium assists to stop these severe state of mind adjustments and decreases the severity of anxiety and mania.

The early research studies of lithium at Glostrup Psychiatric Hospital in the 1960s and 1970s supplied persuading proof that it can lower the regularity of hospital stays for depression (38 ). Baastrup and Schou's placebo-controlled discontinuance study was particularly essential since it showed that patients relapsed on placebo but not on lithium (39 ).

Your doctor will examine your blood levels routinely to ensure you are taking the appropriate amount of lithium. It is important to drink plenty of fluids while taking this medicine. Your medical professional might advise a low-sodium diet regimen while you are taking this medication.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD).
Lithium is a mineral so soft you can suffice with a blade and so light it drifts on water. It is found naturally in the environment, with research studies connecting low degrees of it to emotional and psychological health problems and terrible crime. The mineral was contributed to soft drinks in the 1960s, where it brightened state of minds and assisted individuals focus and focus-- hence the name, 7-Up.

Lithium minimizes mania by raising the action of an enzyme that manages neurotransmitters, lowering glutamate degrees, and helping to stabilize other chemicals in the brain. It has actually also been revealed to have antidepressant effects and enhance rest, irritability, hostility, and anxiousness in ADHD clients.

Individuals taking lithium needs to have regular blood examinations to check levels-- expensive can be toxic. It is essential to allow medical professionals know about various other medicines and supplements taken, as some can connect with it. Tell your doctor if you have looseness of the bowels, throwing up, drowsiness, tremors, weak point, unstable strolling, or fainting (especially after exercise). Use reliable birth control to avoid pregnancy while taking this medication.

Hyperthyroidism.
Lithium might be made use of as a short-term treatment for overactive thyroid glands (hyperthyroidism). This is specifically essential if the person has Graves condition or various other autoimmune problems like thyroiditis or Hashimoto's disease. Lithium inhibits the launch of thyroid hormonal agent by obstructing iodine uptake at the thyroid gland via the sodium-iodide symporter and by interfering with tyrosine iodination. [9] Lithium also prevents thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) excitement and lowers the manufacturing of thyroxine from tyrosine in the thyroid gland. [10] However, lithium use may result in hypothyroidism and a goiter in some individuals. [11] For this reason, constant analysis of thyroid function examinations and dimension is suggested in people on lithium treatment.

It is essential to go over the benefits and risks of this medication with your doctor prior to beginning it. It is likewise important to avoid items reduced in sodium (salt) while taking this medicine and beverage sufficient fluids. If you have any troubles, call your medical professional or the emergency department right away.

Epilepsy.
The anticonvulsant results of lithium are well developed from both clinical and experimental studies. It is important to affordable therapy keep in mind that unlike a few primitive professional records and the lithium-pilocarpine animal model, a variety of recent studies show that lithium in restorative levels does not lower the seizure threshold but in fact reduces the threshold for seizure event.

This is believed to be due to the reality that lithium boosts cholinergic activity, prevents phosphoinositide metabolic process and GSK-3b signalling. It additionally decreases glutamate excitotoxicity by increasing NMDA receptor agonist-evoked apoptotic currents and boosts the endogenous nitric oxide synthase activity in nerve cells [36]

Lithium is well tolerated by most people with bipolar illness, however it has a couple of adverse effects that must be thought about. These consist of a reduced capability to concentrate pee (nephrogenic diabetes insipidus) and a rise in the concentration of lithium in the blood (lithium poisoning). It is for that reason really crucial to follow your doctor's directions about having normal blood tests.