Lithium Safe and Effective For Children With Bipolar Disorder

A new study discovered that the chemical element ‘Lithium’ serves as an effective treatment for children suffering bipolar disorder at least in short term. Fornari hailed the study as a “very important advance in the care of children with bipolar disorder”. The Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation notes that the dates in this study fall prior to and after the creation of a new American Psychiatric Association classification for the disorder.

The medication is commonly prescribed for adults to control mood swings.

However, researchers say that although it can also be prescribed for children and teenagers, it has previously not been seriously tested in young people for safety and effectiveness. The drug has been a well-established prescription for adults to stabilise mood extremes for decades, while prevented for use in young patients.

But in recent years, research guidelines have reflected the belief that excluding such populations may in fact be harming them, because drugs are either withheld or found to behave differently than they do in other groups.

The adult bipolar disorder drug-lithium-is now safe for children.

This is according to a randomised, placebo-controlled study involving 81 children aged from 7 to 17 who had been diagnosed with the condition. The other group of 28 patients took a placebo. During weekly visits the first four weeks, and every other week the last four, patients’ symptoms were determined with the Young Mania Rating Scale.

Lithium was also found not to cause serious side effects in the participants who received it. That was compared to less than a quarter (21 percent) of those taking the placebo.

Additionally, those on lithium dropped almost six more points on average in the 60-point YMRS. Few side effects, including weight gain, reduced kidney and thyroid function, were also seen. According to the researchers of the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, almost one percent of adolescents suffer from this condition and that their main objective was to reduce, if not to completely eradicate, the cases reported.

Further analyses are now in progress to examine the long-term implications of lithium use, he adds.

The evaluation was assessed with a methodology known as “the Clinical Global Impressions Scale” which usually evaluates the capability of treatments in patients with mental disorders.