Posted by Squiggles on October 7, 2001, at 19:46:43
In reply to Re: Effect of Li on non-bipolars » Squiggles, posted by Blood and Fire on October 7, 2001, at 19:33:06
> It looks like, at the least, Lithium acts against sucidal behavior in unipolars:
>
> Schou, Mogens MD, DRMed, DrHCMult. Forty Years of Lithium Treatment. Archives of General Psychiatry. 54(1):9-13, January 1997:
> "However, one may compare lithium with prophylactic alternatives. In a German multicenter study, unfortunately only partly published, which lasted 21/2 years, several hundred patients were randomly allocated to treatment with lithium or carbamazepine for bipolar illness and treatment with lithium or amitriptyline for unipolar illness. [41] Among the patients given the antidepressant drug, there were five suicides and no suicide attempts; among the carbamazepine-treated patients, there were four suicides and five suicide attempts; in the lithium-treated group, there were no suicides and no suicide attempts. The frequency of suicidal acts among the lithium-treated patients was significantly lower than the corresponding frequencies among those who were given antidepressants or carbamazepine (chi squared, P< .001 for both groups). These observations are consistent with the assumption that lithium treatment protects against suicidal behavior..."
Thank you Blood and Fire,Of course lithium is hot stuff - however, this
study compares amitryptiline subjects against
non amitryptiline ones, right? The question I
am interested in is what effect does lithium
have on completely non-medicated normals, against
bipolar or unipolars if you like.Dr. Schou is of course the god of lithium :-)
Squiggles
poster:Squiggles
thread:80571
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011007/msgs/80578.html