[lenjan]

Can somebody tell me more about lithium's antidepressant and anti-suicide properties, and maybe when they're supposed to kick in? I've been on it a week and I feel worse by a factor of 10 -- not even remotely better. Just keep sinking farther and farther.

I know a week doesn't seem like much, but when you feel this bad, it's an eternity, and I'm just trying to determine if it's worth bothering my pdoc about yet, or if she'll just tell me to wait some more.

Candy

[EJ711]

Candy,

A week sounds like a VERY LONG time, when you're not feeling well.

Call your pdoc today!!!

Hugs,

EJ

[DaveyJones]

Hi, Candy...sorry to hear you're still not feeling better.

The lithium should kick in when you reach the therapeutic blood level, between .7 and 1.0 meq/l (don't ask me what that means). So, it depends on how much you're taking, what form, your weight and metabolism, blah, blah... at any rate, there's no set time or anything like that. When they put me on it in the hospital, they did blood levels every other day, I was in for ten days until they got it right.

As for the anti-suicide thing, that's derived statistically.... bipolar patients who take lithium have a lower suicide rate than other forms of treatment. I'm not sure that an antidepressant effect has been demonstrated for lithium, though some docs will get you stable on lithium and then give you antidepressants. You might want to check at www.psycheducation.org. There's a lot of info there about this sort of thing.

And if you're feeling that bad, call your doctor! They can't help if they don't know!

Keep smilin"!

DJ

lithium's therapeutic range is important cos there is a real danger of becomming toxic

lithium i have known to work as an adjunct in treatment of depression

sometimes a lil extra of some other med is helpful to boost the properties of another...

hang in there somewhere along this journey i hope we all get better