Was Lithium Works!, Now: Lithium Is Dangerous And Disabling.

[Guest guest]

Was Lithium Orotate Works!

 

I don't agree in the least with this and see this as nothing more than

another brain disabling toxic substance. Except that on top of that it

is a specific toxic heavy metal not needed by the body at all.

 

I trust Breggin far more than the average shill artist that put their

names on the type of studies presented with the previous article.

 

I urge everyone to NOT take this poison and to warn others.

 

Here is an article that explains a little bit more.

 

Frank

 

 

http://www.sntp.net/drugs/lithium_breggin.htm

 

Lithium: Suppressing " Manic-Depressive " Overwhelm

and The Dangers of this Toxic Heavy Metal Substance

 

(This is taken from Chapter 8 of Peter Breggin's book, Toxic Psychiatry.)

 

Many patients and their families regard lithium as a wonder drug

and have great expectations for its curative value. . . . These

patients are educated in the concept that lithium is a perpetual

preventive much like insulin. - Ronald Fieve, Moodswing (1989)

 

The increasing use of lithium carbonate as the treatment of choice

for patients with bipolar affective disorder highlights a major

concern with respect to memory functioning. . . . Several studies have

found cognitive and memory functioning to be impaired in patients

receiving lithium therapy. - Psychiatric News, December 5, 1986

 

Although it is often possible to help depressed people through caring,

enthusiastic psychotherapy (see chapters 6 and 16), biopsychiatrists

typically reject psychological approaches and instead make

extraordinary claims for the efficacy of drugs.

 

Lithium

 

Probably because of toxicity problems, lithium is rarely prescribed by

nonpsychiatric physicians and is therefore not among the most widely

used psychotherapeutic agents. It accounts for considerably less than

3 percent of total prescriptions for psychotherapeutic drugs by all

physicians.

 

Among psychiatrists, less than 10 percent of drug consultations

concern lithium.

 

The commonly prescribed brand names contain " lith, " as in Eskalith,

Lithane, Lithobid, Lithonate, and Cibalith-S. Although some

preparations are longer-acting, they are interchangeable in regard to

their basic effects. Lithium carbonate is the usual form in which it

is administered.

 

A Magic Bullet? Or Russian Roulette?

 

The promotional campaign for lithium began in 1970, the year the FDA

approved it for psychiatric uses. The opening salvo was fired by NIMH

in a booklet aimed at the media and the general public. Entitled

Lithium in the Treatment of Mood Disorders, it called lithium " the

first specific chemical treatment for a mental illness " and claimed

that " it rarely produces any undesirable effects on emotional and

intellectual functioning. "

 

The NIMH booklet took a potshot at the neuroleptics, claiming that

lithium, unlike the neuroleptics, does not produce a " pharmacological

straightjacket " or " suppress the frantic emotional lability and

hyperactivity of mania by wrapping the patient's entire mind in a

cocoon of stupefaction. " Never mind that other authorities at NIMH

were denying those neuroleptic effects. This group wanted to promote

the contrasting image of lithium as a magic bullet: " Only the symptoms

are leached out while the rest of the personality remains unaffected. "

 

In 1973, three years after the NIMH booklet, psychiatrist Ronald Fieve

started a promotional blitz for lithium by making the media and

medical conference rounds with his famous patient, Joshua Logan, by

his side. Fieve, a well-known biological psychiatrist, was the

director of research for the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Logan, sixty-four years old at the time, had been a producer and

director of such Broadway hits as South Pacific, Annie Get Your Gun,

and Mr. Roberts. Now he was offering himself as a demonstration of the

efficacy of lithium in controlling his manic-depressive disorder. In

earlier years he had done the talk show circuit in support of

electroshock therapy.

Repeating the NIMH theme, Fieve told Diane Shah of the National

Observer (July 7, 1973) that " most tranquilizers zonk a person out -

puts them in a mental straightjacket. And they don't kill the mania,

they just put it in chains. But lithium preserves normal mental and

physical function and seems to get at the core of the illness by

correcting basic biochemical imbalances. "

 

In an article by Harry Nelson in the June 25, 1973, Los Angeles Times,

and elsewhere, Fieve estimated that fifty thousand Americans already

were receiving the drug. Fieve's goal was to put six million on the

drug. Other lithium advocates had a still more grandiose and shocking

vision - putting everyone in the United States on the drug.

How? With lithium in our drinking water.

 

Just Like Fluoride

 

Although the original research had been published in 1970 by Earl

Dawson and others in Diseases of the Nervous System, the proposal for

lithium in drinking water hit the press a few years later during the

Fieve-Logan media tour. The researchers led by psychiatrist Dawson

claimed to have found higher lithium levels in the drinking water of

El Paso compared to Dallas. In El Paso, based on state mental hospital

records, Dawson informed the press, " there are almost no mental

illness admissions. " Admissions to state hospitals were seven times

higher where the lithium level was lowest in the water supply.

Dawson's amazing conclusion is quoted in the July 7, 1973, National

Observer by Diane Shah: " The lithium calms people in El Paso, makes

them more cheerful, and gives them a more tranquil attitude toward life. "

 

An October 15, 1971, Medical World News report picked up on the story

and quoted Dawson as admitting, " Most of my reprint requests come from

Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and other Iron Curtain countries. "

 

In his book Fieve concedes that lithium " probably " should never be

added to the national water supply, and then he adds, " Nonetheless,

the fascinating possibilities exist " (p. 220). Actually, the research

was preposterous. The areas in Texas with high lithium concentrations

in the water were also very rural, where state hospital admission

rates are always lowest.(1) Furthermore, in psychiatry lithium is used

at toxic or near-toxic levels, while the concentrations in the water

were minute, much too small to influence the brain or mind.(2)

 

A Harmless Natural Substance?

 

Today patients and the public frequently are told that lithium

carbonate is a harmless metallic salt found " naturally " in the body

and that its function in manic-depressive disorder is similar to the

function of insulin in diabetes.

 

None of this is true, except that it is a metallic salt found in

nature. So is lead. Like lead, it is a toxic metal with no known

function in the body. Like lead, it appears in traces in the body

simply because it's in the environment. Before the lithium PR

campaign, the 1960 standard textbook Goodman and Gilman's The

Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics observed that lithium has " no

biological function " and " the only pharmacological interest in lithium

arises in the fact that [it] is toxic. " While insulin actually

functions to help the metabolism of sugar in the body, lithium does

nothing so positive. Instead it interferes with nerve transmission in

general, slowing down the responses of the brain.

 

While admitting that the mechanism of action of lithium is unknown,

the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry seems to approve of the

misleading practice of telling patients that it corrects a biochemical

imbalance:

 

" Theories abound, but the explanation for lithium's effectiveness

remains unknown. Patients are often told it corrects a biochemical

imbalance, and, for many, this explanation suffices. There is no

evidence that bipolar mood disorder is a lithium deficiency state or

that lithium works by correcting such a deficiency " (p. 1656).

 

Lithium in Psychiatry

 

Within standard psychiatric practice, lithium has two generally

approved applications: to help abort manic episodes and to help

prevent their recurrence. Its other uses, such as the prevention of

recurrent depression, are controversial even among avid

biopsychiatrists and thus will not be addressed here.

 

In actual clinical practice lithium is not even the drug of choice for

aborting manic attacks. While both the NIMH booklet and psychiatrist

Fieve remark on how the neuroleptics create a chemical straitjacket

and " zonk " the patient, the neuroleptics nonetheless remain the more

commonly used agent for actually stopping a manic attack. Lithium

doesn't work fast enough, sometimes taking several days or weeks to

slow down the patient. Also, the toxic doses required to stop a manic

attack are too dangerous.

 

Lithium's most established role in psychiatry is in long-term

administration for prophylaxis when the patient is between manic episodes.

 

Even so, other drugs - such as the neuroleptics or the anticonvulsant

Tegretol - are used for prophylaxis when lithium proves inadequate or

too toxic. Any lobotomizing or sedating agent is likely to be found

useful. None of this fits the " magic bullet " scenario, and the story

of how lithium was discovered demolishes that image.

 

From Guinea Pigs to Hospital Patients

 

John Cade accidentally discovered the effect of lithium while

injecting it into guinea pigs in his laboratory in Australia.

Serendipitously he noticed that the guinea pigs became sedated and

even flaccid. As he explained in the 1949 Medical Journal of

Australia, " A noteworthy result was that after a latent period of

about two hours the animals, although fully conscious, became

extremely lethargic and nonresponsive to stimuli for one to two hours

before once again becoming normally active and timid. "

 

Notice that the animals became " extremely lethargic and unresponsive

to stimuli. " Does this sound like the discovery of a treatment

specific for " biochemical imbalance " in manic patients? It is, in

fact, the now-familiar brain-disabling effect we first saw described

in regard to the lobotomizing impact of the neuroleptics. Because this

is so disillusioning, the typical textbook of psychiatry makes no

mention of the many studies of lithium effects on animals, and the

average psychiatrist knows little or nothing about it.

 

After this unexpected finding in guinea pigs, did Cade then set up a

series of scientifically controlled studies in animals? No need for

that, when he had ready access to human guinea pigs in the local state

mental hospital. He quickly discovered that he could subdue hospital

inmates as easily as he did the guinea pigs, making them into more

docile inmates. He himself admitted in his pioneering report that the

drug produced a nonspecific leveling effect:

 

An important feature was that, although there was no fundamental

improvement in any of them, three who were usually restless, noisy and

shouting nonsensical abuse ... lost their excitement and restlessness

and became quiet and amenable for the first time in years. (italics added)

 

Yet Cade would later call lithium a " magic wand " for mania.

 

For a miracle treatment lithium was slow in being accepted and

promoted. There were two reasons. First, the drug companies couldn't

patent an elementary metallic salt, so they did not see megabucks in

promoting their own brands in a competitive market. Equally

discouraging, perhaps, in 1949, the very year that Cade was first

plugging lithium for mental patients, a small epidemic of lithium

toxicity in humans was breaking out. A 1949 Journal of the American

Medical Association report by A. C. Corcoran and others, entitled

" Lithium Poisoning from the Use of Salt Substitutes, " described how a

few too many shakes of lithium chloride was causing dangerous and even

fatal central nervous system toxicity.

 

Lithium's Effect on Normal Volunteers

 

From the start, drug experts promoted lithium as having no effect on

normal volunteers. This position has been key to the claim that

lithium cures a disease instead of intoxicating the normal brain. This

theme is usually bolstered by references to a 1968 foreign journal

report by Mogens Schou, perhaps the world's best-known lithium researcher.

 

I was surprised to discover that the oft-cited Schou report was

published in such an esoteric foreign journal that it was not even

available in the stacks of the National Library of Medicine.

Fortunately, Schou was kind enough to send me a copy of his article,

which I have quoted from extensively in Psychiatric Drugs: Hazards to

the Brain.

 

Schou and his two coauthors administered lithium to volunteers, but

for too short a period of time to determine its effects. They then

gave themselves lithium in doses within the therapeutic range for

relatively short periods of one to three weeks.(3) Even though

committed to the notion that lithium has no significant effect on

" normal volunteers, " their self-reports tell a dramatically different

story. All three men were markedly emotionally flattened, especially

when seen through the eyes of their families. In one case the family

considered the blunting effect an improvement in Dad:

 

On other occasions responsiveness to the environmental stimuli was

diminished; this was in one of the cases welcomed by the family ( " Dad

is much easier and nicer than usual " ), while the families of the two

other subjects complained about their being so dull.

 

The subjective experience was primarily one of indifference and

slight general malaise. This led to a certain passivity. The subjects

often had a feeling of being at a distance from their environment, as

if separated from it by a glass wall.... Intellectual initiative was

diminished, and there was a feeling of lowered ability to concentrate

and memorize.... The assessment of time was often impaired; it was

difficult to decide whether an event had taken place recently or some

time ago. (Pp. 715-16)(4)

 

Despite these published observations, Schou himself would declare in a

review article in the March 25, 1988, Journal of the American Medical

Association that lithium counteracts abnormal moods but " interferes to

a remarkably low extent with normal mood level and emotional reactivity. "

 

The most in-depth research on the effect of lithium on normal

volunteers was led by Lewis Judd, the recent director of NIMH, and

reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry in 1977-79. A July 20,

1979, study showed a:

 

" general dulling and blunting of various personality functions "

and overall slowing of cognitive processes.

 

The normal volunteers were observed by trained mental health

professionals as well as by a " significant other " in the volunteers'

lives, such as a girlfriend or roommate. The significant others

recognized lithium's dulling and alienating impact on their

companions, including " increased levels of drowsiness and lowered

ability to work hard and to think clearly. " The trained mental health

professionals - what did they observe? They were " unable to detect any

behavioral changes in the subjects induced by lithium. "

 

Mental health professionals are trained - but trained to what end?

They conveniently are taught not to notice the damaging impact of

their treatments. This is true whether we are talking about lobotomy,

electroshock, or drugs.

 

Normal volunteers or patients taking lithium won't necessarily realize

how impaired they have become. One reason why lithium serum levels

must be taken periodically is that the drugged patients lose their

judgment about their impaired state.(5) Frequently they don't notice

or report symptoms, such as an obvious tremor or a skin rash. This

inattention to harmful drug effects reflects the psychological

indifference or apathy produced by the medication, a reaction that

worsens with larger and more dangerous doses. Hardly the anticipated

magic bullet!

 

Turning Down the Dial of Life

 

Studies of the impact of lithium on mental patients show the same

mentally suppressive result found in volunteers. An October 1968

article by William Dyson and Myer Mendelson in the American Journal of

Psychiatry captures the lithium effect in graphic terms. Describing

lithium's action upon patients who are high or hypomanic, they wrote:

 

It is as if their " intensity of living " dial had been turned down

a few notches. Things do not seem so very important or imperative;

there is a greater acceptance of everyday life as it is rather than as

one might want it to be; and their spouses report a much more peaceful

existence.

 

Turning down the dial of life! Getting people to accept life " as it is

rather than as one might want it to be. " Providing spouses a more

peaceful existence. Many people would question these goals and the

values inherent in them.

 

Lithium Toxicity

 

A recent report on noncompliance asks why a large proportion of

patients, 43 percent in this study, stop taking their lithium. Michael

Gitlin and his colleagues report in the April 1989 Journal of Clinical

Psychiatry that patients most frequently stopped because of weight

gain and mental impairment, with symptoms of " poor concentration, "

" mental confusion, " " mental slowness, " and " memory problems. "

 

Consistent with its toxic effects on the nervous system, lithium

causes a tremor in 30 to 50 percent of patients. Tremors can be a

warning sign of impending serious toxicity of the brain, especially if

it occurs along with other danger signals, such as memory dysfunction,

reduced concentration, slowed thinking, confusion, disorientation,

difficulty walking, slurred speech, blurred vision, ringing in the

ears, nausea, vomiting, and headache. Muscle aches and twitches,

weakness, lethargy, and thirst are other common signs of lithium

toxicity. In the late stages of toxicity, the patient may become

delirious and succumb to seizures and coma. EEG studies indicate an

abnormal slowing of brain waves in a significant portion of patients

routinely treated with lithium; the condition worsens with toxicity.(6)

 

Newborn and Nursing Infants

 

If there was any doubt about the basic subduing effect of lithium, its

impact on newborn and nursing infants should have put them to rest. In

mothers receiving routine doses of lithium, it reaches the baby

through the milk and makes them flaccid and apathetic. In pregnant

mothers it crosses the placenta, impacting on the fetus and producing

a newborn who is neurologically sluggish.

 

Are There Permanent Mental and Neurological Effects?

 

The first indicator of generalized brain damage from any cause is

often the subjective feeling of memory dysfunction. This awareness

often develops far ahead of objective findings on neuropsychological

or neurological tests. I initially expressed concern about memory

impairment from lithium in my 1983 book on drugs. Three years later,

concern about memory difficulties among lithium patients had become

sufficiently widespread for the December 5, 1986, Psychiatric News to

highlight research on the subject, in an article headlined LITHIUM AND

MEMORY LOSS. Researchers were reporting " a major concern with respect

to memory functioning. " Patients on long-term lithium did more poorly

on recalling numbers and on an information subtest of the Wechsler

Memory Scale. Duration of exposure to lithium correlated with negative

performance on a number of other memory measures. In addition, an

unspecified but apparently significant number of patients reported

memory difficulties.

 

The danger to memory sometimes goes unmentioned in textbooks, or it is

dismissed. The Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry (1989) observes,

" Patients may express concern about the effects of lithium carbonate

on their learning, memory, spontaneity, or creativity. Although some

impairment can be objectively delineated in detailed

neuropsychological testing, most patients either do not experience

this effect or do not find it unduly impairing " (p. 927). Yet as we've

seen, many patients are so disturbed by these side effects that they

stop taking lithium. Indeed, in a different section of the textbook it

is stated, " Complaints of dysphoria, intellectual inefficiency, slowed

reaction time, and lack of spontaneity are common, especially early in

the course of treatment " (p. 1660). Meanwhile, others will be too

blunted to complain.

 

One report raises the possibility of more severe mental deterioration

on lithium. In 1985 in the French publication L' Encephale, M-P

Marchand presents two cases of " progressive intellectual

deterioration " from lithium treatment and relates it to the drug's

known toxic impact on cerebral functioning. While no body of evidence

has accumulated to confirm this finding, I am gravely concerned that

someday we will find ourselves confronting mountainous documentation

for dementia due to long-term lithium exposure, much as we must do now

in regard to the neuroleptics (chapter 4).

 

Other Lithium Side Effects

 

Many studies show that the vast majority of patients suffer from one

or more side effects, the most common being thirst, dry mouth,

metallic taste, excessive urination, weight gain, nausea and other

gastrointestinal problems, sleep difficulties, fatigue or lethargy,

poor coordination, tremor, and the various other neurological and

mental effects already described.

 

Kidney problems associated with long-term lithium treatment have been

the subject of much research and controversy. Lithium causes an

increased excretion of water through the kidneys, and long-term use

has resulted in pathological changes in the kidneys of some patients.

Despite many studies, the relationship between lithium and kidney

disease remains controversial and clouded, but the clouds are rather

dark and ominous.

 

In a March 1989 review in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, James W.

Jefferson of the Lithium Information Center at the University of

Wisconsin responded to the question, " Does lithium cause kidney rot? "

He answered:

 

Not exactly. While lithium is not a kidney-friendly drug, neither

does it wreak the havoc on function and morphology [structure] that

was suggested by studies in the late 1970s. It is well established

that therapeutic amounts of lithium can impair renal concentrating

ability, increase urine volume, and cause morphological

abnormalities.... Patients can be told that while their kidneys may

not win a beauty contest, they can expect them to function adequately

for years. On the other hand, when long-term studies become very

long-term, the result may not be as encouraging.

 

Most patients would not find these " beauty contest " remarks

encouraging, and they are rarely given such a glimpse of the potential

menace to their kidneys.

 

Lithium suppresses thyroid function, causing hypothyroidism and

goiter, in up to 10 percent of patients. Hypothyroid symptoms of

sluggishness can mimic or elicit depression, and the physician can

mistakenly interpret the problem as a recurrence of depression

requiring more of the offending medication.

 

Much more rarely, lithium can produce hyperthyroidism, an overactivity

of the thyroid gland. It also can produce an excessive output of

hormone from the parathyroid gland, causing demineralization and

weakening of the bones. "

 

Lithium raises the white-blood-cell count, and there are reported

cases of leukemia in association with lithium treatment. Whether

lithium actually produces leukemia and the seriousness of other

reported blood abnormalities remains uncertain. Unhappily, these

dangers frequently go unmentioned in authoritative sources.

 

Skin rashes similar to psoriasis and acne frequently are caused by

lithium; occasionally a rash persists long after removal from lithium.

More than 10 percent of women may experience hair loss on lithium.

 

Perhaps as an aspect of its suppression of passion, lithium frequently

reduces sexuality.

 

Twenty to 30 percent of patients taking lithium develop cardiac

abnormalities as measured by electrocardiogram (EKG). Patients with

arrhythmias should be cautious about taking lithium.

 

People Who Want Lithium

 

Patients should not take lithium under the mistaken impression that it

is a specific cure for mania rather than a nonspecific brain-disabling

agent. They should not be misled into believing that it is a natural

substance in the body and that taking it is comparable to taking

insulin for diabetes. Nor should they be led to believe it is harmless.

 

Earlier we saw that Joshua Logan traveled around the country promoting

lithium with psychiatrist Ronald Fieve. Was Logan informed about the

potential negative effects of lithium? We don't know, but in a letter

to me Logan ridiculed the idea that the drug might harm his

creativity. Yet his own doctor, Fieve, with coauthor Polatin, had

described cases of suppressed creativity as early as 1971 in the

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

In the same JAMA article, Fieve declares that lithium is comparable in

its specificity to insulin. That surely is misinformation. The key to

Logan's promotion of shock treatment and then lithium probably lies a

statement of astonishing candor that he made to the in media: " It is

much easier to take a pill than to think of even one self-revealing

sentence. "

 

Many patients with a history of becoming extremely high do want to

take lithium. They certainly have the right to do so, and they will

have little trouble finding a psychiatrist to provide it to them. But

physicians and psychotherapists also should have the right to refuse

to give toxic remedies, much as we reject giving alcohol or street

drugs to patients who feel they cannot live without them.

 

We must ask ourselves whether drugs actually help people understand

and take better control over their inner mental lives and their

conduct, and we must ask ourselves whether the potential moral

downside isn't too great. Taking psychoactive drugs on a regular basis

readily becomes a symbolic gesture that interferes with personal

growth and even fosters personal failure. The associated brain

dysfunction also increases the individual's helplessness. Beyond that,

we must be concerned about the long-lasting and permanent damage,

known and unknown, that can result from these agents.

 

I don't doubt that some manic-depressive people have fewer mood swings

as a result of taking lithium on a regular basis. But even greater

numbers of people have fewer bouts of extreme emotion as a result of

drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes or marijuana, or overeating.

Recently a patient consulted me after becoming manic when he stopped

abusing alcohol, but I didn't encourage him to resume drinking beer.

Instead I urged him to deal with himself and his problems, and he has

transformed his life for the better without resorting to alcohol or

lithium.

 

Nonetheless, many persons feel so committed to " self-medicating " with

alcohol that they will pursue it even when it becomes

life-threatening. I don't believe that the desire to handle life

through a psychiatric drug is essentially different from the desire to

do it with alcohol, and I don't believe that physicians should look

upon it more favorably.

 

To cast the problem of psychiatric drug use into the realm of drug use

in general is more honest and realistic and should enable each person

to make a more informed choice. In the meantime, drugs are being

pushed by psychiatry and by the media.

 

Biomythology

 

In the world of modern psychiatry, claims can become truth, hopes can

become achievements, and propaganda is taken as science. Nowhere is

this more obvious than in psychiatric pretensions concerning the

genetics, biology, and physical treatment of depression and mania. As

we also found in regard to neuroleptics and so-called schizophrenia,

biopsychiatric research is based too often on distortions, incomplete

information, and sometimes outright fraud - at the expense of reason

and science.

 

* There are no known biological causes of depression in the lives

of patients who routinely see psychiatrists.

* There is no known genetic link in depression.

* There is no sound drug treatment for depression.

* The same is true for mania: no biology, no genetics, and little

or no rational basis for endangering the brain with drugs.

* The biomythology of depression denies the obvious causes of

depression in the lives of most people who become depressed.

Blopsychiatrists dare not look their patients in the eye for fear of

seeing the psychological truth; they cannot look into their patients'

hearts for fear of empathizing with them. Ultimately they must deny

their own feelings in order to deny the feelings of others.

* To treat a depressed person as a biochemically defective

mechanism, and to blunt or damage the brain of the suffering

individual, many biopsychiatrists approach the patient with an

especially dehumanizing view. Out of this perspective grow extreme

treatments like electroshock, the harrowing subject of the next chapter.

 

Footnotes:

 

1. State hospital admissions are largely proportional to urban poverty

and homelessness, and to the willingness of hospitals to admit these

people involuntarily (see chapter 3).

 

2. Hardly anyone believes that lithium is such a panacea that its

wide-scale use, even in clinically effective doses, could

substantially reduce psychiatric admissions to hospitals. Nonetheless,

the lithium-in-your-drinking-water proposal illustrates an extreme of

biopsychiatric thinking that can only be restrained, like threats to

liberty itself, by eternal vigilance. It was widely covered in the

press, and other psychiatrists supported it.

 

3. It is extremely unusual for psychiatrists to administer drugs to

themselves as part of their research.

 

4. The description is very similar to that of lobotomy, with its

classic impact of reduced initiative and interest.

 

5. Because of this drug-induced indifference, even to signs of

toxicity, and because of the drug's negative impact on the brain,

patients taking lithium must have their blood levels checked regularly

in order to prevent potentially lethal reactions.

 

6. People who already have brain damage, as from electroshock or

neuroleptic treatment, tend to become toxic more easily when taking

lithium, probably because their brains have less functional reserve.

Many sources recommend against combining lithium and electroshock.

There are reports of life-threatening neurotoxic reactions when

lithium is combined with neuroleptics, especially Haldol.

 

Peter Breggin's Home Site - Peter R. Breggin, M.D. founded The

International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology

(ICSPP) as a nonprofit research and educational network concerned with

the impact of mental health theory and practices upon individual

well-being, personal freedom, and family and community values. For 25

years ICSPP has been informing the professions, media and the public

about the potential dangers of drugs, electroshock, psychosurgery, and

the biological theories of psychiatry.

Suggested Reading:

Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry : Drugs, Electroshock, and

the Role of the FDA Today! by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.

 

Toxic Psychiatry : Why Therapy, Empathy, and Love Must Replace the

Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the New Psychiatry by

Peter R. Breggin, M.D.

 

The Manufacture of Madness : A Comparative Study of the Inquisition

and the Mental Health Movements by Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., Professor

 

Law, Liberty, and Psychiatry : An Inquiry into the Social Uses of

Mental Health Practices by Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., Professor

 

Bedlam : Greed, Profiteering, and Fraud in a Mental Health System Gone

Crazy by Joe Sharkey

 

The Limits of Biological Treatments for Psychological Distress by

Seymour Fisher and Roger P. Greenberg

 

Physician's Desk Reference (PDR)

 

Psychiatric Drugs: Hazards to the Brain by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.

 

Say NO To Psychiatry!

 

Back to Psychiatric Drugs Main Page

 

Back to Main SNTP Page

 

 

 

 

 

, " JoAnn Guest "

<angelprincessjo> wrote:

> Lithium Orotate Works!

> The Unique, Safe Mineral with Multiple Uses

>

> (Article contains treatment of bipolar disorder along with other

> uses of lithium orotate)

> by Ward Dean, M.D. and Jim English

>

> Lithium is a mineral with a cloudy reputation. It is an alkali metal

> in the same family as sodium, potassium and other elements.

>

> Although lithium is highly effective in the treatment of manic

> depressive

> illness (X4 DI), its pharmaceutical (prescription) versions, lithium

> carbonate and lithium citrate, must be used with caution.

>

> The reason for the caution with prescription lithium is because

> lithium in

> these forms is poorly absorbed by the cells of the body -- and it is

> within the cells that lithium's therapeutic effects take place.

>

> Lithium ions are believed to act only at particular sites on the

> membranes of intracellular structures like mitochondria and

> lysosomes.

>

> Consequently, because of this poor intracellular transport, high

> dosages of pharmaceutical forms of lithium must be taken in order to

> obtain a satisfactory therapeutic effect.

>

> Unfortunately, these therapeutic dosages cause blood levels to be so

> high that they brder on toxic levels. Consequently, patients taking

> prescription

> lithium must be closely monitored for toxic blood levels. Serum

> lithium and serum creatinine levels of prescription lithium-treated

> patients should be monitored every 3-6 months.

>

> Toxic effects of lithium may include hand tremors, frequent

> urination, thirst, nausea, and vomiting. Even higher doses may cause

> drowsiness, muscular weakness, poor coordination, ringing in the

> ears, blurred vision, and other symptoms.

>

> There has been concern that long-term lithium treatment may damage

> kidney function, but data in this regard are equivocal. Renal

> insufficiency without a known cause has occurred in the general

> population, and the incidence of renal failure among manic-

> depressive patients not treated with lithium remains unknown.

>

> Most patients treated with lithium are also taking other

> medications, and it is just as likely that the few known cases of

> renal failure in patients taking lithium were due to other

> medications that they were simultaneously taking.

>

> Nevertheless, with potential side effects like this, why in the

> world would anyone want to take lithium? It is because lithium has

> been found to be one of the most effective treatments for manic-

> depressive illness (bi-polar disorder).

>

> Bipolar Disorder

>

> Bipolar disorder is a severe mood disorder characterized by manic or

> depressive episodes that usually cycle back and forth between

> depression and mania. The depressive phase is characterized by

> sluggishness (inertia), loss of self-esteem, helplessness,

> withdrawal and sadness, with suicide being a risk. The manic phase

> is characterized by elation, hyperactivity, over-involvement in

> activities, inflated self-esteem, a tendency to be easily

> distracted, and little need for sleep. In either phase there is

> frequently a dependence on alcohol or other substances of abuse. The

> disorder first appears between the ages of 15 and 25 and affects men

> and women equally. The cause is unknown, but hereditary and

> psychological factors may play a role. The incidence is higher in

> relatives of people with bipolar disorders. A psychiatric history of

> mood swings, and an observation of current behavior and mood are

> important in the diagnosis of this disorder.7

>

> Orthodox Treatment

>

> Hospitalization may be required during an acute phase to control the

> symptoms. Antidepressant drugs may be given; anticonvulsants

> (Carbamazepine, Valproic acid, Depakote) may also be used. (These

> substances deplete body stores of L-carnitine and Taurine.

> Supplementation with several grams daily of these supplements

> greatly ameliorates adverse side effects of these drugs).

>

> Lithium, however, is the treatment of choice for recurring bipolar

> (manic/depressive) illness, serving as an effective mood enhancer in

> 70-80 percent of bipolar patients.

>

> Mortality-lowering, Anti-suicidal Effect of Lithium

>

> The mortality of manic-depressive patients is markedly higher than

> that of the general population. The increased mortality is mainly,

> but not exclusively, caused by suicide. Studies have shown that the

> mortality of manic-depressive patients given long-term lithium

> treatment is markedly lower than that of patients not receiving

> lithium. The frequency of suicidal acts among treated patients is

> significantly lower than patients given other antidepressants or

> carbamazepine. The results of mortality studies are consistent with

> the assumption that lithium-treatment protects against suicidal

> behavior. 8-13

>

> Unipolar Disorder

>

> In addition to its well-recognized benefits in the management of

> bipolar disorder, trials have conclusively demonstrated that lithium

> is also an effective treatment for recurrent unipolar depressive

> illness (recurrent major affective disorder).14-16 Although

> physicians in Europe have successfully used lithium for this

> indication for many years, American psychiatrists do not share their

> appreciation of lithium's safety and effectiveness for conditions

> other than MDI. Perhaps it is due to a difference in the lithium

> preparations they have at their disposal.

>

> Superiority of Lithium Orotate

>

> The lithium salt of orotic acid (lithium orotate) improves the

> specific effects of lithium many-fold by increasing lithium bio-

> utilization. The orotates transport the lithium to the membranes of

> mitochondria, lysosomes and the glia cells. Lithium orotate

> stabilizes the lysosomal membranes and prevents the enzyme reactions

> that are responsible for the sodium depletion and dehydration

> effects of other lithium salts. Because of the superior

> bioavailability of lithium orotate, the therapeutic dosage is much

> less than prescription forms of lithium. For example, in cases of

> severe depression, the therapeutic dosage of lithium orotate is 150

> mg/day. This is compared to 900-1800 mg of the prescription forms.

> In this dosage range of lithium orotate, there are no adverse

> lithium side reactions and no need for monitoring blood serum

> measurements.17

>

> Other Uses for Lithium Orotate

>

> Lithium orotate has also been used with success in alleviating the

> pain from migraine and cluster headaches, low white blood counts,

> juvenile convulsive disease, alcoholism and liver disorders.18

> Nieper also reports that patients with myopia (nearsightedness) and

> glaucoma often benefit from the slight dehydrating effect of lithium

> on the eye, resulting in improvement in vision and reduction of

> intraocular pressure.17

>

>

References

>

> 1. Aronson JK, Reynolds DJM. ABC of monitoring drag therapy:

> lithium. BMJ. 1992;305: 1273-1276.

>

> 2. Schou M, Effects of long-term lithium treatment on kidney

> function: an overview. J Psychiat Res, 1988;22.,287-296,

>

> 3. Waller DG, Edwards TG. Lithium and the kidney: an update.

> Psycliol Mod. 1989; 19:825-83 1.

>

> 4. Gitlin MJ. Lithium-induced renal insufficiency., J Clin

> Psychopharmacol. 1993) 13:276-279.

>

> 5, Kallner G,.Petterson IJ. Renal, thyroid and parathyroid function

> during lithium treatment: laboratory test in 207 people treated for

> 1-30 years. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1995;91:48-5 1.

>

> 6. Baastrup PC, Schou M. Lithium as a prophylactic agent: its effect

> against recurrent depressions and manic-depressive psychosis. Arch

> Gen Psychiatry. 1967; 16:162-172.

>

> 7. Goodwin FK, Jamison KR. Manic-Depressive Illness. Oxford,

> England: Oxford University Press; 1990.

>

> 8. Mueller-Oerlinghausen D, Ahrens B, Volk J, Grof P, Grof E, Schou

> M, Vestergaard P, Lenz G, Sinihandl C, Tlau K, Wolf R. Reduced

> mortality of manic-depressive patients in long-term lithium

> treatment, an international collaborative study by IGSLI. Psychiatry

> Res. 1991;36:329-331.

>

> 9. Ahrens B, Mueller-Oerlinghausen 3, Schou M, Wolf T, Alda M, Grof.

> E. Grof P, Lejiz G, Simhandl C, Thau K, Vestergaard P, Wolf R,

> Moeller H. Cardiovascular and suicide mortality of affective

> disorders may be reduced by lithium prophylaxis. J Affect DI-Y,

> 1995;33:67-75.

>

> 10. Mueller-Oerlinghausen B, Mueser-Causemam B, Volk J. Suicides and

> parasuicides in a high-risk patient group on and off lithium long-

> term medication, J Affect Dis. 1992;25: 261-270.

>

> 11. Felber- NV, Kyber A. Suizide und Parasuizide wachrend und

> aubetadserhalb einer Lithiumprophylaxe. In-, Muclicr-Oerlinghausen

> B, Berghoefer A, eds. Ziele und Ergebnisse der medikagivitoeseyi I-i-

>

> opiiylaice affektiver Psychoseii. Stuttgart, Germany, Thieme;

> 1994:53-59.

>

> 12. Thies-Flechtner K, Seibert W, Walther A, Greil W, Mueller-

> Oerlinghausen B, Suizide bei rezldlvprophylaktisch behandelten

> Patienten mit affektiven Psychosen. In: Mueller-Oerlinghausen B,

> Berghoefer A, eds. Ziele und Ergebnisse der medikamentoesen

> Prophylaxe offekliver Psychosen. Stuttgart, Germany. Thieme; 1994,61-

>

> 64.

>

> 13. Schou M.. Mortality-lowering effect of prophylactic lithium

> treatment, a look at the evidence, Pharmacopsychiatry. 1995;28: 1.

>

> 14. Souza FGM, Goodwin GM. Lithium treatment and prophylaxis in

> unipolar depression: a meta-analysis, Br J Psychiatry. 1991; 158:666-

>

> 675.

>

> 15. Johnstone EC, Owens DGC, Lambert MT, Crow TJ, Frith CD, Done DJ.

> Combination tricyclic, antidepressant and lithium maintenance

> medication in unipolar and bipolar depressed patients. J Affect Dis,

> 1990;20:225-233,

>

> 16. Prien RF, Kupfer DJ, Mansky PA, Small JG, 'I'uason VB, Voss CB,

> Johnson WE. Drug therapy in the prevention of recurrences in

> unipolar and bipolar affective disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry,

> 1984;41.1096-1104,

>

> 17. Nieper HA The clinical application of lithium orotate.

> Agressologie 14(6). 407-411, 1973,

>

> 18. Sartori HE, Lithium orotate in the treatment of alcoholism and

> related conditions, Alcohol 1986 Mar; 3 (2): 97-100.

>

> 19. Nieper HA The curative effect of a combination of Calcium-

> orotate and Lithium orotate on primary and secondary chronic

> hepatitis and primary and secondary liver cirrhosis. From lecture

> Intl Acad of Prevent Med, Washington, DC March 9, 1974.

>

> (The information in this article is not intended to provide personal

> medical advice, which should be obtained from a medical

> professional.)

>

> http://mysite.verizon.net/res003jh/lithium-orotate/id11.html

> _________________

>

> JoAnn Guest

> mrsjoguest@s...

> DietaryTipsForHBP

> www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes