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Home > Community Treatment Reports and Side Effects > Lithium Carbonate Treatment Report
What is Lithium Carbonate?

Lithium Carbonate is used to treat and prevent episodes of mania in people with bipolar disorder (manic depressive disorder). Lithium is in a class of medications called antimanic agents, which work by decreasing abnormal activity in the brain.

Reported Purpose & Efficacy

Reasons and Efficacy
Purpose # of patients
# of patients with evaluations Efficacy
Major
Moderate
Slight
None
Can’t tell
Bipolar Disorder 322 124 Efficacy_major Efficacy_moderate Efficacy_slight Efficacy_none Efficacy_cant_tell
ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) 302 91 Efficacy_moderate Efficacy_slight Efficacy_none Efficacy_cant_tell
Treat my mood condition(s) 164 44 Efficacy_major Efficacy_moderate Efficacy_slight Efficacy_none Efficacy_cant_tell
Bipolar II Disorder 140 31 Efficacy_major Efficacy_moderate Efficacy_slight Efficacy_none Efficacy_cant_tell
Bipolar I Disorder 139 30 Efficacy_major Efficacy_moderate Efficacy_slight Efficacy_none Efficacy_cant_tell
Other 45 7 Efficacy_major Efficacy_moderate Efficacy_none Efficacy_cant_tell

See all 745 patients currently taking Lithium Carbonate

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Reported Side Effects

Side effects as an overall problem

Severe
 72
Moderate
 94
Mild
 100
None
 87

Commonly reported side effects, conditions, and hospitalizations associated with Lithium Carbonate

Tremor in hands 79
Weight gain 43
Thirst 41
Nausea 38
Urinary frequency 26
Diarrhea 23
See all 136 reported side effects ▼ See top 6 reported side effects ▲

Reported Dosages

Frequently reported dosages based on patients currently taking Lithium Carbonate. See all 46 dosages ►

  150 mg daily 300 mg daily 450 mg daily 600 mg daily 750 mg daily 800 mg daily 900 mg daily 1,200 mg daily 1,350 mg daily 1,500 mg daily
  13 Number of Patients: 13 131 Number of Patients: 131 47 Number of Patients: 47 158 Number of Patients: 158 15 Number of Patients: 15 13 Number of Patients: 13 194 Number of Patients: 194 81 Number of Patients: 81 13 Number of Patients: 13 26 Number of Patients: 26  

Reported Stop Reasons

Why Patients Stopped Taking Lithium Carbonate (multiple reasons could be selected)
Reason # Patients Percentage of patients
Did not seem to work 217   Did not seem to work: 43%
Side effects too severe 208   Side effects too severe: 42%
Doctor's advice 114   Doctor's advice: 23%
Other 69   Other: 14%
Personal research 45   Personal research: 9%
Course of treatment ended 15   Course of treatment ended: 3%
Expense 13   Expense: 3%
Not indicated 12   Not indicated: 2%
Change in health plan coverage 3   Change in health plan coverage: 1%

See all 492 patients who’ve stopped taking Lithium Carbonate

Reported Duration See details about how long patients take this treatment ▼

Currently Taking Lithium Carbonate

A bar graph

0-1 month 1-3 months 3-6 months 6 months-1year 1-2 years 2 years or more

Stopped Taking Lithium Carbonate

A bar graph

0-1 month 1-3 months 3-6 months 6 months-1year 1-2 years 2 years or more

Reported Adherence, Burden & Cost See details from patient evaluations ▼

Adherence

Taking treatment as prescribed

Adherence of Lithium Carbonate

Always
 265 75%
Usually
 62 18%
Sometimes
 12 3%
Never
 14 4%

Burden

Difficulty being on treatment

Burden of Lithium Carbonate

Very
 21 6%
Somewhat
 57 16%
A little
 67 19%
Not at all
 208 59%

Cost

Paid out of pocket

Cost of Lithium Carbonate

$200+
 1 0%
$100-199
 0 0%
$50-99
 7 3%
$25-49
 19 8%
< $25
 206 88%

See more information, including instructions, precautions, side effects, and interactions.

Report created on May 27, 2012.