Lithium, a drug used successfully for decades to treat adults with bipolar disorder, can also be safe and effective for children suffering from the chronic brain condition. The study was published in Pediatrics.
Robert Findling, professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, US, said, "Lithium is the grandfather of all treatments for bipolar disorder, but it has never been rigorously studied in children."
Research team conducted a study involving 81 patients seen at nine academic medical centers across the United States. The study participants were split roughly equally between sexes, ranged in age from seven to 17 and had all been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After undergoing a 'washout' period for those already taking ineffective medication for this condition, 53 children started a regimen of lithium at a standard dose. This dose was gradually increased to a maximum tolerated dose over the next eight weeks if mood symptoms were not controlled. The remaining 28 patients received placebo.
Results suggested that the patients on lithium experienced far more significant improvement in their symptoms over eight weeks compared with those on the placebo.
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