Select a community
Mood Conditions including Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar, OCD, and PTSD
Find out more about the PatientsLikeMe
Mood Conditions Community
Home > Community Treatment Reports > 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. Read more...Click to read more below

Side Effects

Side effects as an overall problem

Severe
9 14%
Moderate
21 32%
Mild
32 48%
None
4 6%

Most commonly reported side effects

thirst
24 36%
Weight gain
20 30%
tremors in hands
18 27%
Nausea
17 26%
Diarrhea
12 18%
trembling hands
11 17%
  • Mild
  • Moderate
  • Severe

Dosages

Top 10 dosages based on patients currently taking Lithium Carbonate. See all 24 dosages ►

  daily 2 mg daily 10 mg daily 126 mg daily 150 mg daily 152 mg daily 300 mg daily 350 mg daily 450 mg daily 600 mg daily 675 mg daily 750 mg daily 800 mg daily 900 mg daily 950 mg daily 1000 mg daily 1050 mg daily 1125 mg daily 1200 mg daily 1350 mg daily 1500 mg daily 1575 mg daily 1800 mg daily 2250 mg daily
  3 Number of Patients: 3 1 Number of Patients: 1 1 Number of Patients: 1 1 Number of Patients: 1 1 Number of Patients: 1 1 Number of Patients: 1 27 Number of Patients: 27 1 Number of Patients: 1 12 Number of Patients: 12 40 Number of Patients: 40 1 Number of Patients: 1 1 Number of Patients: 1 4 Number of Patients: 4 98 Number of Patients: 98 2 Number of Patients: 2 2 Number of Patients: 2 3 Number of Patients: 3 2 Number of Patients: 2 28 Number of Patients: 28 3 Number of Patients: 3 12 Number of Patients: 12 1 Number of Patients: 1 4 Number of Patients: 4 1 Number of Patients: 1  

Stop Reasons

Why Patients Stopped Taking Lithium Carbonate (multiple reasons could be selected)
Reason # Patients Percentage of patients
Side effects too severe
29 46% Side effects too severe: 46%
Did not seem to work
22 35% Did not seem to work: 35%
Doctor's advice
20 32% Doctor's advice: 32%
Other
12 19% Other: 19%
Expense
4 6% Expense: 6%
Personal research
1 2% Personal research: 2%
Course of treatment ended
1 2% Course of treatment ended: 2%
Not indicated
1 2% Not indicated: 2%

See all 61 patients who’ve stopped taking Lithium Carbonate

Duration See details about how long patients take this treatment ▼

Currently Taking Lithium Carbonate

0-1 month 1-3 months 3-6 months 6 months-1year 1-2 years 2 years or more
3
6
12
41
24
45

Stopped Taking Lithium Carbonate

0-1 month 1-3 months 3-6 months 6 months-1year 1-2 years 2 years or more
12
10
10
6
10
12

Adherence, Burden & Cost See details from patient evaluations ▼

Adherence

Taking treatment as prescribed

Always
57 86%
Usually
7 11%
Sometimes
1 2%
Never
1 2%

Burden

Difficulty being on treatment

Very
5 8%
Somewhat
14 21%
A little
21 32%
Not at all
26 39%

Cost

Paid out of pocket

$200+
1 2%
$100-199
0 0%
$50-99
1 2%
$25-49
5 8%
< $25
44 67%

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

Research:
Lithium & ALS

See how ALS patients taking lithium are doing in real-time by viewing FRS scores before and after starting lithium. Easily compare individual dosages and blood levels, and filter results by a rich set of patient characteristics.

Icon_bullet_arrow Research: Lithium & ALS

Report created on November 21, 2009.