Finland: Lithium!

In medicine, population wide survey has its place not forgetting that when many modern psychiatric drugs went through the so called "robust" double blind control trial, it is never really all that double blind as many of the drugs tested have side effects that could easily biased both patient and researcher. The patient realising that he/she is taking the "real" drug might want to report improvement or the opposite. The observing researcher will realise very quickly and may unfortunately be biased even if unintentional.

I remember questioning the presenters of Olanzapine on this especially as patient reported great craving for food and put on weight, the presenter refused to answer my question.

Then there is the question of Bipolar or Unipolar. Well, my view is this and Psychiatrist might not like to admit it: we might get it wrong. If risk of suicide is high why use something that might provoke suicide. The same Finnish team that did the research came up with the answer on using Lithium in Unipolar Depression!

© 2012 Am Ang Zhang

Finland & Unipolar Depression: a nationwide cohort study.

Prof Jari Tiihonen, et al/  Here are the essential points and full summary here.

Background

Little is known about the comparative effectiveness of long-term pharmacological treatments for severe unipolar depression. We aimed to study the effectiveness of pharmacological treatments in relapse prevention in a nationwide cohort of patients who had been admitted to hospital at least once as a result of unipolar depression.

Methods

Our nationwide cohort study investigated the risk of readmission to hospital in 1996–2012 in all patients in Finland who had been admitted to hospital at least once for unipolar depression (without a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) in Finland between Jan 1, 1987, and Dec 31, 2012.

Findings

Data from 123 712 patients were included in the total cohort, with a mean follow-up time of 7·9 years (SD 5·3). Lithium use was associated with a lower risk of re-admission to hospital for mental illness than was no lithium use. Risk of hospital readmission was lower during lithium therapy alone.

Interpretation

Our results indicate that lithium, especially without concomitant antidepressant use, is the pharmacological treatment associated with the lowest risk of hospital readmission for mental illness in patients with severe unipolar depression, and the outcomes for this measure related to antidepressants and antipsychotics are poorer than lithium. Lithium treatment should be considered for a wider population of severely depressed patients than those currently considered, taking into account its potential risks and side-effects.

Suicide: The Answer, my friend may be Lithium!

The following is an extract from The Cockroach Catcher:

“Get him to the hospital. Whatever it is he is not ours, not this time. But wait. Has he overdosed on the Lithium?”

“No. my wife is very careful and she puts it out every morning, and the rest is in her bag.”

Phew, at least I warned them of the danger. It gave me perpetual nightmare to put so many of my Bipolars on Lithium but from my experience it was otherwise the best.

“Get him admitted and I shall talk to the doctor there.”

He was in fact delirious by the time they got him into hospital and he was admitted to the local Neurological hospital. He was unconscious for at least ten days but no, his lithium level was within therapeutic range.

He had one of the worst encephalitis     they had seen in recent times and they were surprised he survived.

Then I asked the Neurologist who was new, as my good friend had retired by then, if the lithium had in fact protected him. He said he was glad I asked as he was just reading some article on the neuroprotectiveness of lithium.

Well, you never know. One does get lucky sometimes. What lithium might do to Masud in the years to come would be another matter.

I found that people from the Indian subcontinent were very loyal once they realised they had a good doctor – loyalty taking the form of doing exactly what you told them, like keeping medicine safe; and also insisting that they saw only you, not one of your juniors even if they were from their own country. It must have been hard when I retired.

Some parents question the wisdom of using a toxic drug for a condition where suicide risk is high. My answer can only be that lithium seems inherently able to reduce that desire to kill oneself, more than the other mood stabilizers, as the latest Harvard research shows.

Lithium has its problems – toxic at a high level and useless at a low one, although the last point is debatable as younger people seem to do well at below the lower limit of therapeutic range.

Many doctors no longer have the experience of its use and may lose heart as the patient slowly builds up the level of lithium at the cellular level. The blood level is a safeguard against toxicity and anyone starting on lithium will have to wait at least three to four weeks for its effect to kick in. In fact the effect does not kick in, but just fades in if you get the drift.

Long term problems are mainly those of the thyroid and thyroid functions must be monitored closely more so if there is a family history of thyroid problems. Kidney dysfunction seldom occurs with the Child Psychiatrist’s age group but is a well known long term risk.

Also if there is any condition that causes electrolyte upset, such as diarrhea, vomiting and severe dehydration, the doctor must be alerted to the fact that the patient is on Lithium.

Could Lithium be the Aspirin of Psychiatry? Only time will tell!.

The suicide prevention effect of lithium: more than 20 years of evidence—a narrative review

Gold Standard: Clozapine & Finland