lithium

Examples of lithium in the following topics:

• Pharmacotherapy (Medication)

  • Anti-cycling agents, also called mood stabilizers, are drugs such as lithium that are used to treat bipolar disorder.
  • Lithium is very effective and very fast working: it eliminates the manic phase of bipolar depression, and once the manic phase is eliminated, the depressed phase usually stops as well.
  • The downside is that lithium has a number of serious side effects.
  • Then with the 1950s came the establishment of chlorpromazine for psychoses, lithium carbonate for mania, and then in rapid succession, the development of tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and benzodiazepines, among other antipsychotics and antidepressants.

• Bipolar Disorders

  • Medications that are used to treat bipolar disorders (such as lithium) work to block norepinephrine activity at the synapses.
  • The medication with the best evidence thus far is lithium, which is effective for many people in treating acute manic episodes and preventing relapses (more so for manic than for depressive episodes).

• Explaining Mood Disorders

  • Major depressive disorder medications usually include antidepressants such as SSRIs, while bipolar disorder medications can consist of antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and/or lithium.