Lithium for long-term treatment of unipolar depression

„Lithium in der Behandlung der Altersdepression. Was spricht dafür, was dagegen?“

“…Sie alle thematisierten nicht primär die Lithiumaugmentation oder erwähnten diese nur nebensächlich. Weiterhin wurde der Artikel von Young [10] exkludiert, da dieser nur einen kurzen Kommentar darstellte und keine neuen Erkenntnisse brachte.…”

Highlights for this issue

“…For example, lithium was recommended as the first-choice add-on treatment for treating patients with TRD by the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry Task Force, 13 and lithium augmentation of antidepressants is a first-line treatment option recommended by both the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the current British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP) guidelines for treating depression non-responsive to antidepressants 6 . It should also be noted that although lithium has been most often associated with the treatment of bipolar disorder, it has a good evidence base showing clear-cut benefits to the patient when used in unipolar depression 14 …”

Identifying the neuropsychiatric health effects of low-dose lithium interventions: A systematic review

“…Lithium is the mainstay treatment for mood episodes in the context of bipolar disorder (Cousins et al, 2020), and not only has a robust evidence base for other mood disorders (Strawbridge et al, 2019;Young, 2017) but also reasonable evidence for its anti-suicide properties (Lewitzka et al, 2015) (which may be independent of its mood stabilising effect (Song et al, 2017)). Clinically therapeutic doses of lithium (as delineated in treatment guidelines) are associated with adverse effects such as renal and thyroid dysfunction (Strawbridge and Young, 2022), which can be mitigated or addressed through regular monitoring of blood monitoring.…”

“…Due to the well-documented interplay between affective disorders, substance use disorders and neurodegenerative disorders (The Lancet, 2020) and the extant evidence for high-dose lithium benefitting each of these (Cousins et al, 2020;Strawbridge et al, 2019;Young, 2017;Lewitzka et al, 2015;Matsunaga et al, 2015), a synthesis of the literature on low-dose lithium is warranted for its neuropsychiatric effects as a whole.…”