...Janusz K. Rybakowski Background: The 75th anniversary of introducing lithium into modern psychiatry is recognized, attested by the 1949 paper of John Cade. About this event, my editorial in the special 2010 issue of Neuropsychobiology was titled “Lithium: Sixty Years Thereafter.” Since...

...L. Toker; N. Kara; I. Hadas; H. Einat; Y. Bersudsky; R.H. Belmaker; G. Agam Background: Lithium has numerous biochemical effects but it is difficult to dissect which of these is responsible for its therapeutic action in bipolar disorder. In the current study we aimed to address one of the major...

... months) remission, compared with healthy controls. Methods: The study was performed on 121 bipolar patients, of whom 35 were in immediate remission after mania, 41 were in immediate remission after depression, and 45 were in >6-month remission on lithium monotherapy or lithium combined with other...

...A. Suwalska; M. Sobieska; J.K. Rybakowski Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in a group of euthymic bipolar patients on long-term prophylactic lithium treatment and to delineate putative relationships between lithium efficacy and BDNF...

... alterations of the striatum and thalamus in a cohort of patients with PG before and after treatment with lithium. Methods: Twenty-one patients with PG who met lifetime comorbid bipolar spectrum diagnoses and a comparison group of 21 age- and sex-matched controls underwent a baseline positron emission...

...Bruno Müller-Oerlinghausen; Ute Lewitzka From a practical point of view, the well-proven antisuicidal and anti-aggressive effects of lithium are of utmost importance for a rational, safe and economical treatment of patients with affective disorders. Regular lithium long-term treatment reduces...

...Alessandra M.A. Nivoli; Andrea Murru; Eduard Vieta Background: Scientific literature considers lithium a key treatment for the acute and long-term management of bipolar disorder (BD). Despite its worldwide clinical use, the effectiveness of lithium has been questioned. The aim of this work...

... the engineering of new and more favorable treatments. New insights in the molecular aspects of bipolar disorder may be brought by the understanding of the pharmacodynamics of lithium, the first-line treatment for this disease. The mechanisms by which lithium exerts its activity in the central nervous system...

..., there is a critical need for effective medication strategies that augment treatment with antidepressants. Methods: To review the available evidence on the use of lithium as an augmentation strategy to treat depressive episodes. Results: More than 30 open-label studies and 10 placebo-controlled double-blind trials...

... PET scans. Sixteen of these patients were entered into a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled parallel group design trial of lithium, and received follow-up PET scans at 10 weeks. A comparison group of 32 age- and sex-matched controls was also available. Anatomical MRIs were obtained...

... of the clinical response to psychostimulants in hyperkinetic children. Consistent findings have also been reported concerning the relationship between ERPs and the antidepressive as well as prophylactic effects of lithium. Relating to other aspects of drug therapy in psychiatry, there have been isolated studies...

...Andrea Loviselli; Alberto Bocchetta; Paola Mossa; Fernanda Velluzzi; Fortunato Bernardi; Maria Del Zompo; Stefano Mariotti Psychiatric patients on long-term lithium (Li) therapy frequently develop goiter and/or hypothyroidism. It has also been suggested that Li may trigger/ exacerbate thyroid...

...Yasumasa Okamoto; Nobutaka Motohashi; Hiroshi Hayakawa; Mitsutaro Muraoka; Shigeto Yamawaki The effects of the addition of short-term lithium to long-term administration of antidepressants (clomipramine or citalopram) on the levels of 5-HT and 5-HIAA and serotonergic receptors were studied...

...Maria Kusalic; Frank Engelsmann The renal function was assessed in 51 bipolar patients on multiple-dosage lithium maintenance therapy from 1 to 22 years, after placing them on single (HS) dosage for 12–18 months. Serum lithium levels were maintained constant at a level of 0.8 mg/1. The patients...

... adjustment or initiative, and met criteria for chronic schizophrenia. Each also had obsessions or compulsions, and apathetic dysphoria, symptoms not previously attributed to TP. Following neuroleptic termination with introduction of lithium and sertraline, each showed atypically rapid disappearance...

... reported to be secondary to lithium, tricyclic antidepressants and other agents such as cyproheptadine, a serotonin antagonist, piribedil, pro-pranolol and levodopa. The increase in rapid cycling has coincided with the rapid increase in cocaine use in the society even though such an association cannot...

...Teruo Okuma Characteristics of the responders and nonresponders to prophylactic treatment with carbamazepine (CBZ) or lithium (Li) were investigated in a retrospective study of 215 bipolar disorder patients who had received more than 2 years of CBZ or Li treatment in Japan. Patients of mania...

...EM. Emrich; M. Dose; R. Wolf One of the main challenges in the psychopharmacology of affective disorders is to explain the partial similarity of the profiles of action of the different mood-stabilizers lithium, carbamazepine, and valproate, and possibly also calcium antagonists like verapamil...

...Robert M. Post; Terence A. Ketter; Peggy J. Pazzaglia; Mark S. George; Lauren Marangell; Kirk Denicoff There is increasing recognition that lithium is inadequate in the treatment of up to 50% of bipolar patients. In addition to subgroups that are nonresponsive from the outset, loss of efficacy...

...Maria Kusalic Thyroid function was evaluated in 10 rapid-cycling bipolar patients who had previously responded to lithium treatment. Five patients had grade II and 1 patient had grade III hypothyroidism as determined by thyrotropin-releasing hormone tests. Treatment with thyroxine in addition...