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Home > Community Treatment Reports > APO-Lithium (lithium carbonate) Treatment Report
What is APO-Lithium?

APO-Lithium, a brand name, 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
Slow my ALS progress 6 2

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Side Effects

Side effects as an overall problem

Severe
0 0%
Moderate
1 50%
Mild
1 50%
None
0 0%

Most commonly reported side effects

chest pressure/catching breathe
2 100%
Urinary frequency
1 50%
Leg spasms (both)
1 50%
Excessive Thirst
1 50%
  • Mild
  • Moderate
  • Severe

Dosages

  300 mg daily 450 mg daily 750 mg daily
  1 Number of Patients: 1 1 Number of Patients: 1 1 Number of Patients: 1  

Stop Reasons

Why Patients Stopped Taking APO-Lithium (multiple reasons could be selected)
Reason # Patients Percentage of patients
Side effects too severe
3 75% Side effects too severe: 75%
Did not seem to work
2 50% Did not seem to work: 50%
Doctor's advice
1 25% Doctor's advice: 25%

See all 4 patients who’ve stopped taking APO-Lithium

Duration See details about how long patients take this treatment ▼

Stopped Taking APO-Lithium

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

Adherence, Burden & Cost See details from patient evaluations ▼

Adherence

Taking treatment as prescribed

Always
2 100%
Usually
0 0%
Sometimes
0 0%
Never
0 0%

Burden

Difficulty being on treatment

Very
1 50%
Somewhat
0 0%
A little
0 0%
Not at all
1 50%

Cost

Paid out of pocket

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

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 22, 2009.