Lithium Helps Your Brain as Well as Your Mood

In bipolar patients, lithium seems to increase gray matter in areas that regulate mood and cognition.

Mood disorders are associated with brain-volume loss, which may be related to neurotoxic effects of excessive levels of cortisol and excitatory amino acids. To determine whether lithium might protect against the neurotoxicity of chronic bipolar disorder, researchers used MRI to compare gray-matter density in 28 outpatients with bipolar disorder and 28 healthy controls. Twenty patients were taking lithium (mean treatment duration, 2.4 years; monotherapy in 16 patients).

The bipolar group had significantly larger gray-matter volumes than the control group did, and this difference was entirely explained by the 9% greater gray-matter volumes in the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes of the lithium-treated group. Gray-matter volumes were simil…

Reviewing Author

Steven Dubovsky, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportTower Foundation; Patrick Lee Foundation; Boehringer Ingelheim; Intra-Cellular Therapies; Janssen; Biogen; Allergan

Editorial BoardsMind and Brain; Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic; Current Psychiatry; Journal of Psychosomatic Research

Steven Dubovsky, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportTower Foundation; Patrick Lee Foundation; Boehringer Ingelheim; Intra-Cellular Therapies; Janssen; Biogen; Allergan

Editorial BoardsMind and Brain; Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic; Current Psychiatry; Journal of Psychosomatic Research

Lithium Helps Your Brain as Well as Your Mood

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Reviewing Author