Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE
Volume 24, Issue 4, Pages 330-340Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/13651501.2020.1775855
Keywords
Lithium; mood-stabiliser; bipolar disorder; suicide; herpes; neuroprotection
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Objectives:A narrative review of past, present, and future of lithium use in psychiatry. Methods:The most important references on the topic were reviewed with special emphasis on the author's works. Results:The history of medical and psychiatric use of lithium dates back to more than one and a half-century ago. However, modern psychiatric history began with the publication of John Cade, in 1949, showing a therapeutic effect of lithium in mania. Currently, lithium is a drug of choice as a mood-stabilizer for the maintenance treatment of the bipolar disorder. The second most important use of lithium is probably augmentation of antidepressants in treatment-resistant depression. In addition to its mood-stabilizing properties, lithium exerts anti-suicidal, immunomodulatory, and neuroprotective action. The drug may protect against dementia and some promising effects of lithium in neurodegenerative disorders have been observed. Conclusion:Given the clinical and biological properties of lithium, this drug is presently greatly underutilized in mood disorders. Therefore, the efforts should be undertaken for challenging a skepticism about the use of lithium and optimizing its long-term administration. In such a way, more patients with mood disorders can become the beneficiaries of lithium's therapeutic action.
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