Lithium – an important drug treatment for bipolar disorder as well as depression – may also reduce the risk of developing dementia, according to a new British scientific study.
His researchers Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, who published the study in the medical journal PLoS Medicine, analyzed data on nearly 30,000 patients over the age of 50, of whom 548 with a mean age of 74 years had been treated with lithium. No one was diagnosed with dementia at the beginning of the study.
It was found that those who had taken lithium in the past were less likely to develop dementia later. In the lithium group 53 patients or 9.7% were diagnosed with dementia, while in the much larger group of those who had not taken lithium 3,244 or 11.2% were later diagnosed with dementia.
After taking into account other factors (smoking, other drugs, physical and mental health, etc.), it was concluded that the use of lithium is associated with a lower risk of dementia in those who take it either for a long time or for a short time. This, scientists say, suggests that lithium could possibly be a preventative treatment against the risk of dementia, which should, however, be confirmed by future larger randomized and controlled clinical trials.
Lithium has previously been suggested for use in people already diagnosed with dementia or early cognitive impairment, but a new study has focused on preventive use of the substance, which stabilizes mood.
The lead researcher Dr. Shanquan Chen “It’s too early to say for sure, but it is possible that lithium could reduce the risk of dementia in people with bipolar disorder,” he said.
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