Lithium

Question 1

What is lithium?

Answer 1

mood stabiliser, available in many salts like carbonate, citrate and orotate

Question 2

what class of drugs does lithium belong to?

Answer 2

antipsychotic agents

Question 3

What are other drugs in the same class as lithium?

Answer 3

Risperidone
Clozapine
Quetiapine
Droperidol
Sodium valproate
Haloperidol decanoate
Chlorpromazine

Question 4

What is lithium indicated for?

Answer 4

treatment and prophylaxis of mania, hypomania and depression in bipolar disorder

• prophylaxis and treatment of recurrent unipolar depression
• concomitant therapy with antidepressant meds

Question 5

What is the relevance of lithium in thyroid disease?

Answer 5

Lithium is concentrated by the thyroid and inhibits thyroidal iodine uptake, iodotyrosine coupling

-alters thyroglobulin structure and inhibits thryoird hormone secretion resulting in hypothyroidism and goitre.

Question 6

What is the mechanism of lithium?

Answer 6

interacts with transport of monovalent or divalent cations in neurons
stabilisers glutamate by changing the inward and outward currents of glutatmate receptors

non competitively inhbits inositolmonophosphatase