Does Lithium Block the Effects of Amphetamine? A Report of Three Cases

An Amphetamine Model of Manic Depressive Illness

“…We suspect that it can. Lithium can antagonize many of the effects of the ampheta mines, and, as we have argued earlier, these effects, including the inhibition of monoamine oxidase activity, mimic those of stress (11,14,22,23,77,78). It follows that lithium likely is able to prevent the inhibition of monoamine oxi dase activity in response to stress, but the matter requires direct experimental validation.…”

“…The feelings of depression and exhaustion can last for many weeks but may be ameliorated by the tricyclic anti-depressants (78). By the same token, the mood elevating and stimulating effects of the ampheta mines can be blocked by lithium (22,76,77). Amphetamines impair sleep and promote wakefulness and their withdrawal is followed by a marked increase in both sleep and drowsiness.…”

The Psychobiology of Consciousness

“…Therefore, it is not surprising that the pattern of cell arrest (increased intracellular with no change in extracellu-lar fluorescence) is converted to the pattern seen with cell arrestors like chlorimipramine in association with compensatory changes, that is, increases in both extracellular and intracellular amine measures (Mandell, Geyer, & Knapp, in preparation). Animal behavioral data and clinical reports have suggested that lithium antagonizes the behavioral effects of both amphetamine (Segal, Callaghan, & Mandell, 1975;Furukawa, 1975;van Kammen & Murphy, 1975) and cocaine (Cronson & Flemenbaum, 1978;Flemenbaum, 1974), and this antagonism is consistent with known serotonergic inhibition of stimulant-induced behavior (Hollister, Breese, Kuhn, Cooper, & Schanberg, 1976;Warbritton, Stewart, & Baldessarini, 1978). Consonant with this formulation is the finding that parachlorophenylalanine (PCPA) an inhibitor of tryptophan hydroxylase (Scheel-Kriiger, Braestrup, Nielson, Golembiowska, & Mocilnicka, 1977), and lesions of the mesolimbic median raphe nuclei (but not the mesostriatal dorsal raphe nuclei) potentiate many of the behavioral effects of amphetamine and cocaine (Segal, 1977).…”

Lithium and valproate attenuate dextroamphetamine-induced changes in brain activation

“…Recently it was also demonstrated that dextroamphetamine administration causes a decrease in regional brain activity during the performance of a battery of cognitive tasks in a variety of cognitive domains as measured by fMRI (Willson et al, 2004). Lithium and valproate are commonly used mood stabilizers for the treatment of bipolar disorder, and there is some evidence to suggest that the behavioral effects of dextroamphetamine may be attenuated by lithium (Flemenbaum, 1974; van Kammen and Murphy, 1975), although this finding has not been reproduced in all studies (Silverstone et al, 1998).…”