Bipolar disorder is a common psychiatric condition characterized by periods of depression alternating with mania, affecting an estimated 1% of the population worldwide and 3% in the United States (Kessler et al. 2005). One of the mainstays of treatment for this disease is lithium, which is efficacious but has numerous side effects. Among these adverse effects is renal toxicity, including diabet...

BACKGROUND The characteristic ECG pattern of ST-segment elevation in V1 and V2 in the Brugada syndrome is dynamic; it is often intermittently present in affected individuals and can be unmasked by sodium channel blockers, including antiarrhythmic drugs and tricyclic antidepressants. We report here 2 patients who developed the Brugada ECG pattern after administration of lithium, a commonly used ...

Lithium is one of the standard drugs in the treatment of bipolar disorder, although its molecular modes of action are not well understood. It is a potent inhibitor of the multifunctional enzyme Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3ß (GSK3ß), which also plays a central role in neurogenesis via the developmental Wnt signaling pathway. In the present study, we analyzed the influence of lithium on GSK3ß signa...

BACKGROUND Experimental evidence supports the neuroprotective properties of lithium, with implications for the treatment and prevention of dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders. Lithium modulates critical intracellular pathways related to neurotrophic support, inflammatory response, autophagy and apoptosis. There is additional evidence indicating that lithium may also affect membrane h...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether lung injury influences the accuracy of lithium dilution cardiac output (CO) measurement. DESIGN Animal experimental study. SETTING Animal experimental laboratory. PARTICIPANTS Swine (n = 23) weighing 26.4 +/- 2.47 kg (mean +/- SD). INTERVENTIONS The animals were anesthetized and tracheotomized, then a pulmonary artery catheter was inserted into the right j...

In fourth instar larvae of Camptochironomus tentans, net sodium uptake from 2 mM-NaCl has an electrogenic component. During net uptake the transepithelial potential (TEP) alters from a value of approximately - 40 mV (sign refers to haemolymph), in depleted animals, to approximately o mV. The TEP in depleted larvae is dependent upon external sodium concentration above about I mM-Na+, becoming in...

1. Treatment of washed rat liver microsomes in a medium containing 0.12m-sucrose, 12.5mm-potassium chloride, 2.5mm-magnesium chloride and 25mm-tris-hydrochloric acid buffer, pH7.6, with 2m-lithium chloride at 5 degrees for 16hr. leads to the formation of membranes free of ribosomes and ribosomal subunits. 2. Confirmation of the absence of ribosomes from lithium chloride-prepared membranes was o...