Posted by Blood and Fire on October 7, 2001, at 19:33:06
In reply to Effect of Li on non-bipolars, posted by Squiggles on October 7, 2001, at 18:39:53
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..."
poster:Blood and Fire
thread:80571
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011007/msgs/80573.html