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Lithium Prophylaxis (lithium + prophylaxis)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

Lithium intoxication secondary to unrecognized pontine haemorrhage

ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 5 2001
V. Novak-Grubic
Lithium prophylaxis carries a substantial risk of medical complications, especially in the case of concomitant medical conditions. We describe a patient with unrecognized cerebrovascular haemorrhage, admitted to hospital due to lithium intoxication. [source]

Suicidal risk in bipolar I disorder patients and adherence to long-term lithium treatment

BIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 5p2 2006
Ana Gonzalez-Pinto
Objectives:, Among the well-established treatments for bipolar disorder (BPD), lithium continues to offer an unusually broad spectrum of benefits that may include reduction of suicidal risk. Methods:, We examined the association of suicidal acts with adherence to long-term lithium maintenance treatment and other potential risk factors in 72 BP I patients followed prospectively for up to 10 years at a Mood Disorders Research Center in Spain. Results:, The observed rates of suicide were 0.143, and of attempts, 2.01%/year, with a 5.2-fold (95% CI: 1.5,18.6) greater risk among patients consistently rated poorly versus highly adherent to lithium prophylaxis (11.4/2.2 acts/100 person-years). Treatment non-adherence was associated with substance abuse, being unmarried, being male, and having more hypomanic,manic illness and hospitalizations. Suicidal risk was higher with prior attempts, more depression and hospitalization, familial mood disorders, and being single and younger, as well as treatment non-adherence, but with neither sex nor substance abuse. In multivariate analysis, suicidal risk was associated with previous suicidality > poor treatment adherence > more depressive episodes > younger age. Conclusions:, The findings support growing evidence of lower risk of suicidal acts during closely monitored and highly adherent, long-term treatment with lithium and indicate that treatment adherence is a potentially modifiable factor contributing to antisuicidal benefits. [source]

The prophylactic effect of long-term lithium administration in bipolar patients entering treatment in the 1970s and 1980s

BIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 2 2001
Janusz K Rybakowski
Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the prophylactic effect of long-term lithium administration in patients with bipolar mood disorders entering treatment in the 1970s and 1980s at the outpatient clinic of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland. Methods: The clinical characteristics of two groups of patients before and during lithium therapy were compared, namely, the 60 bipolar patients who entered lithium prophylaxis in the 1970s and 49 patients who entered in the 1980s. Both groups received the drug over a 10-year period. Results: The patients who entered lithium in the 1970s had fewer previous episodes of depression and more of mania than the patients who entered the therapy in the 1980s, although the total number of affective episodes was similar in both groups. The overall prophylactic efficacy of lithium over a 10-year period of administration was similar in both groups, except for a trend towards a greater number of depressive episodes in the first year of lithium prophylaxis in the 1980s group. The excellent lithium responders constituted 35% of the 1970s patients and 27% of those in the 1980s group. The 1970s patients were maintained on a higher level of serum lithium compared to the patients in the 1980s group and had more lithium-induced side effects. Conclusions: A decrease in lithium prophylactic efficacy in consecutive decades was not observed. Small differences between the bipolar patients entering lithium therapy in the 2 decades were observed in terms of the previous history of illness and during the course of lithium administration. [source]

The impact of lithium prophylaxis on the course of bipolar disorder: a review of the research evidence

BIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 2 2000
Mario Maj
A critical review is provided of the available research evidence concerning the efficacy and effectiveness of lithium prophylaxis in bipolar disorder. It is emphasized that, in spite of the limitations of available placebo-controlled trials and naturalistic studies, lithium is the only drug whose prophylactic activity in bipolar disorder is convincingly proved, and remains the first-choice medication in the long-term treatment of bipolar patients. The impact of lithium prophylaxis is likely to be less significant on atypical and comorbid cases of bipolar disorder than in typical manic,depressive illness, but the superiority of other medications over lithium in the long-term treatment of those cases is at present not convincingly proved by research. Currently available research evidence does not seem to support the idea that lithium exerts its prophylactic effect on relapses but not on recurrences of bipolar disorder. Clinicians should be aware of the fact that the drop-out rate in bipolar patients receiving long-term lithium prophylaxis is high even if treatment surveillance is accurate, and that complete suppression of recurrences is a relatively rare outcome of prophylaxis. [source]