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Home > Community Treatment Reports > Lithium Treatment Report
What is Lithium?

Lithium 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

Reasons taken & Efficacy

Reasons and Efficacy
Reasons taken # of patients Major Moderate Slight None Can’t tell # of patients evaluated by
Treat my mood condition(s) 28 6
Bipolar, rapid cycling 10 3
Bipolar Disorder 8 4
Support another treatment 5 1
Other 3 1
General health 1 0

Mouse over the table for more information

Side Effects

Side effects as an overall problem

Severe
2 13%
Moderate
4 27%
Mild
6 40%
None
3 20%

Most commonly reported side effects

get the shakes
8 53%
hand tremors
8 53%
thirst
8 53%
Memory problems
6 40%
Urinary frequency
5 33%
nausea, dizziness
2 13%
  • Mild
  • Moderate
  • Severe

Dosages

Top 10 dosages based on patients currently taking Lithium. See all 13 dosages ►

  150 mg daily 300 mg daily 350 mg daily 450 mg daily 600 mg daily 750 mg daily 900 mg daily 1200 mg daily 1250 mg daily 1350 mg daily 1500 mg daily 1600 mg daily 1800 mg daily
  1 Number of Patients: 1 14 Number of Patients: 14 1 Number of Patients: 1 2 Number of Patients: 2 8 Number of Patients: 8 2 Number of Patients: 2 15 Number of Patients: 15 8 Number of Patients: 8 1 Number of Patients: 1 2 Number of Patients: 2 3 Number of Patients: 3 1 Number of Patients: 1 1 Number of Patients: 1  

Stop Reasons

Why Patients Stopped Taking Lithium (multiple reasons could be selected)
Reason # Patients Percentage of patients
Other
3 33% Other: 33%
Did not seem to work
2 22% Did not seem to work: 22%
Side effects too severe
2 22% Side effects too severe: 22%
Expense
1 11% Expense: 11%
Personal research
1 11% Personal research: 11%
Doctor's advice
1 11% Doctor's advice: 11%

See all 8 patients who’ve stopped taking Lithium

Duration See details about how long patients take this treatment ▼

Currently Taking Lithium

0-1 month 1-3 months 3-6 months 6 months-1year 1-2 years 2 years or more
1
0
3
7
9
6

Stopped Taking Lithium

0-1 month 1-3 months 3-6 months 6 months-1year 1-2 years 2 years or more
4
2
1
1
0
0

Adherence, Burden & Cost See details from patient evaluations ▼

Adherence

Taking treatment as prescribed

Always
12 80%
Usually
2 13%
Sometimes
1 7%
Never
0 0%

Burden

Difficulty being on treatment

Very
2 13%
Somewhat
1 7%
A little
3 20%
Not at all
9 60%

Cost

Paid out of pocket

$200+
0 0%
$100-199
0 0%
$50-99
0 0%
$25-49
2 13%
< $25
11 73%

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 20, 2009.