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People with bipolar disorder have deficits in immediate and delayed verbal learning. Lithium is neuroprotective, increases neurogenesis in animals, and seems to increase total gray-matter volumes in humans (see, e.g., Journal Watch Psychiatry Aug 13 2007). These researchers examined hippocampal volume and memory performance in 12 patients with bipolar disorder treated naturalistically with lithium for up to 4 years.
The patients, who had previously not received psychotropic medication, completed MRI scans and a test of verbal learning and memory within 1 month of starting treatment and after about 2 and 4 years of lithium use. Forty psychiatrically healthy controls underwent MRIs at the start of the study. Hippocampal volumes at baseline did…