Lithium is a mood stabilizer and can assist to treat or protect against mania. It can also be utilized to lower the frequency of anxiety episodes.
Take this medication as guided by your medical professional. It is essential to consume alcohol plenty of liquids while taking this medicine. Lithium might connect with specific medications that affect serotonin (such as antidepressants, SSRIs, MAO inhibitors). Inform your doctor regarding every one of your medications.
Mood Problems
Lithium is commonly used to deal with bipolar disorder, a mental disease that causes really fast changes between the severe moods of clinical depression and mania. Bipolar affective disorder can make it tough to live a typical life and can create severe troubles in connections, job or school. Lithium aids to prevent these severe state of mind modifications and lowers the seriousness of clinical depression and mania.
The early researches of lithium at Glostrup Psychiatric Hospital in the 1960s and 1970s provided convincing proof that it can minimize the frequency of hospital stays for clinical depression (38 ). Baastrup and Schou's placebo-controlled discontinuance research study was especially vital because it revealed that clients slipped back on sugar pill but out lithium (39 ).
Your physician will examine your blood levels regularly to see to it you are taking the right amount of lithium. It is necessary to consume alcohol plenty of fluids while taking this medication. Your physician may advise a low-sodium diet plan while you are taking this medicine.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Lithium is a mineral so soft you can suffice with a knife and so light it drifts on water. It is discovered naturally in the setting, with research studies linking low degrees of it to psychological and mental health problems and terrible criminal activity. The mineral was contributed to soft drinks in the 1960s, where it lightened up state of minds and assisted people concentrate and focus-- for this reason the name, 7-Up.
Lithium decreases mania by increasing the activity of an enzyme that controls neurotransmitters, decreasing glutamate degrees, and assisting to balance various other chemicals in the mind. It has also been revealed to have antidepressant impacts and boost rest, impatience, aggressiveness, and anxiousness in ADHD individuals.
Individuals taking lithium must have routine blood tests to monitor levels-- too high can be toxic. It is important to let doctors know about various other drugs and supplements taken, as some can interact with it. Inform your medical professional if you have looseness of the bowels, throwing up, sleepiness, tremblings, weakness, unsteady walking, or fainting (especially after exercise). Usage efficient birth control to avoid pregnancy while taking this medicine.
Hyperthyroidism.
Lithium might be utilized as a short-term treatment for overactive thyroid glands (hyperthyroidism). This is especially essential if the patient has Tomb condition or various other autoimmune problems like thyroiditis or Hashimoto's illness. Lithium prevents the release of thyroid hormone by blocking iodine uptake at the thyroid gland with the sodium-iodide symporter and by hindering tyrosine iodination. [9] Lithium additionally inhibits thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation and reduces the manufacturing of thyroxine from tyrosine in the thyroid gland. [10] Nonetheless, lithium usage might lead to hypothyroidism and a goiter in some clients. [11] Thus, regular examination of thyroid feature tests and dimension is suggested in clients on lithium therapy.
It is necessary to discuss the benefits and threats of this medication with your physician prior to beginning it. It is also essential to prevent items low in sodium (salt) while taking this medication and drink sufficient fluids. If you have any type of troubles, call your doctor or the emergency division as soon as possible.
Epilepsy.
The anticonvulsant results of lithium are well established from both professional and experimental research studies. It is necessary to note that as opposed anxiety treatment center to a couple of primitive clinical reports and the lithium-pilocarpine pet model, a number of current researches demonstrate that lithium in restorative degrees does not lower the seizure threshold however in fact lowers the threshold for seizure incident.
This is believed to result from the fact that lithium enhances cholinergic task, hinders phosphoinositide metabolism and GSK-3b signalling. It also minimizes glutamate excitotoxicity by raising NMDA receptor agonist-evoked apoptotic currents and enhances the endogenous nitric oxide synthase activity in nerve cells [36]
Lithium is well endured by many people with bipolar illness, yet it has a couple of side effects that should be thought about. These consist of a reduced capability to concentrate urine (nephrogenic diabetic issues insipidus) and a boost in the focus of lithium in the blood (lithium toxicity). It is as a result extremely essential to follow your physician's directions about having regular blood examinations.
