Does Lithium Protect Against Dementia?

Lithium has multiple cellular actions that may be neuroprotective, but it is unclear whether they translate into clinical benefit. To examine whether lithium prescriptions alter the risk for dementia, researchers linked databases with all medical information between 1995 and 2005 on all 5.3 million people older than 40 in Denmark. The investigators also performed similar analyses of anticonvulsant prescriptions.

Compared with almost 1.5 million people who never filled a lithium prescription, the 16,238 people who filled one lithium prescription had significantly greater risk for a diagnosis of dementia (relative risk, 1.47) in analyses adjusted for age, sex, calendar period, and the purchase of antidepressants and anticonvulsants. However, i…