The 10-20 mg that LifeMirage mentioned is extremely conservative, regardless of the form of lithium administered.
In psychiatry lithium is used at toxic or near-toxic levels often exceeding 900 mgs or more - the amounts quoted by LifeMirage would essentially be useless in effecting any change, positive or otherwise. And yes I have a bias against lithium, it is because someone very close to me went into renal failure despite close monitoring of her blood levels and ultimately required a kidney transplant because of it.
It also seems to be an odd substance to be promoting on the Nootropics & Brain Enhancer subforum. From this admittedly anti-lithium website:
http://www.sntp.net/...ium_breggin.htmLithium Toxicity A recent report on noncompliance asks why a large proportion of patients, 43 percent in this study, stop taking their lithium. Michael Gitlin and his colleagues report in the April 1989 Journal of Clinical Psychiatry that patients most frequently stopped because of weight gain and mental impairment, with symptoms of "poor concentration," "mental confusion," "mental slowness," and "memory problems."
Consistent with its toxic effects on the nervous system, lithium causes a tremor in 30 to 50 percent of patients. Tremors can be a warning sign of impending serious toxicity of the brain, especially if it occurs along with other danger signals, such as memory dysfunction, reduced concentration, slowed thinking, confusion, disorientation, difficulty walking, slurred speech, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, nausea, vomiting, and headache. Muscle aches and twitches, weakness, lethargy, and thirst are other common signs of lithium toxicity. In the late stages of toxicity, the patient may become delirious and succumb to seizures and coma. EEG studies indicate an abnormal slowing of brain waves in a significant portion of patients routinely treated with lithium; the condition worsens with toxicity.(6)
Are There Permanent Mental and Neurological Effects? The first indicator of generalized brain damage from any cause is often the subjective feeling of memory dysfunction. This awareness often develops far ahead of objective findings on neuropsychological or neurological tests. I initially expressed concern about memory impairment from lithium in my 1983 book on drugs. Three years later, concern about memory difficulties among lithium patients had become sufficiently widespread for the December 5, 1986, Psychiatric News to highlight research on the subject, in an article headlined LITHIUM AND MEMORY LOSS. Researchers were reporting "a major concern with respect to memory functioning." Patients on long-term lithium did more poorly on recalling numbers and on an information subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale. Duration of exposure to lithium correlated with negative performance on a number of other memory measures. In addition, an unspecified but apparently significant number of patients reported memory difficulties.
The danger to memory sometimes goes unmentioned in textbooks, or it is dismissed. The Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry (1989) observes, "Patients may express concern about the effects of lithium carbonate on their learning, memory, spontaneity, or creativity. Although some impairment can be objectively delineated in detailed neuropsychological testing, most patients either do not experience this effect or do not find it unduly impairing" (p. 927). Yet as we've seen, many patients are so disturbed by these side effects that they stop taking lithium. Indeed, in a different section of the textbook it is stated, "Complaints of dysphoria, intellectual inefficiency, slowed reaction time, and lack of spontaneity are common, especially early in the course of treatment" (p. 1660). Meanwhile, others will be too blunted to complain.
One report raises the possibility of more severe mental deterioration on lithium. In 1985 in the French publication L' Encephale, M-P Marchand presents two cases of "progressive intellectual deterioration" from lithium treatment and relates it to the drug's known toxic impact on cerebral functioning. While no body of evidence has accumulated to confirm this finding, I am gravely concerned that someday we will find ourselves confronting mountainous documentation for dementia due to long-term lithium exposure, much as we must do now in regard to the neuroleptics (chapter 4).
