Hello All. There has been some discussion about lithium lately. The following are just rough guide lines and are no substitute for your docs experience and blood work.
When docs initially try and decide how much lithium they should use they use the following forumla. 15-20 mg of lithium per kg of body weight. Thus a person weighing 60 kilos(132 lbs) would be worked out to between 900 and 1200 mg of lithium. (at very low or very high body masses that guessimate doesn't work so well) A 100 kg man may take 1500-2000mg or more, a dose that may well kill the lighter person.
The reason for all the blood work as that dosage is only an initial guess, a lot depends on how your body processes lithium and how you react.
The real readings your doc is looking for is your blood levels expressed in plasma concentration hopefully between 0.6 to 1.2 mmol Li+/litre . Below .6 lithium doesn't work so well (there are exceptions) and above 1.5 you may start to O.D.
Generally the doc looks for the lowest theraputic level that will work. It's fine to say I would like to stay at .6 to keep the side effects down, but if it doesn't work for you at that level, then your wasting your time.
After a while your docs will get a pretty good idea of how much lithium to use to keep you stable. Not me, or anybody else but you.
Unlike many other meds, lithium dosage is a really individual amount so never think that because paul takes 1800 mg daily and sometimes more, you can take that much too.It could kill you. As well, a lithium overdose can occur if you become dehydrated. Either through to much sun, not enough fluids or a severe case of the runs or the flu will do it too. Take Care. paul m
When docs initially try and decide how much lithium they should use they use the following forumla. 15-20 mg of lithium per kg of body weight. Thus a person weighing 60 kilos(132 lbs) would be worked out to between 900 and 1200 mg of lithium. (at very low or very high body masses that guessimate doesn't work so well) A 100 kg man may take 1500-2000mg or more, a dose that may well kill the lighter person.
The reason for all the blood work as that dosage is only an initial guess, a lot depends on how your body processes lithium and how you react.
The real readings your doc is looking for is your blood levels expressed in plasma concentration hopefully between 0.6 to 1.2 mmol Li+/litre . Below .6 lithium doesn't work so well (there are exceptions) and above 1.5 you may start to O.D.
Generally the doc looks for the lowest theraputic level that will work. It's fine to say I would like to stay at .6 to keep the side effects down, but if it doesn't work for you at that level, then your wasting your time.
After a while your docs will get a pretty good idea of how much lithium to use to keep you stable. Not me, or anybody else but you.
Unlike many other meds, lithium dosage is a really individual amount so never think that because paul takes 1800 mg daily and sometimes more, you can take that much too.It could kill you. As well, a lithium overdose can occur if you become dehydrated. Either through to much sun, not enough fluids or a severe case of the runs or the flu will do it too. Take Care. paul m
. Duralith came off the market a while ago because the patent ran out(read the mfg couldn't make enough money) and lithium SR(carbolith) was removed because the mfg ran into quality control problems and they agreed with health Cda to quit making several products(lithium SR being one of them). The chemical makeup of the product was fine, it was the mfg that had the problems with quality control.
, my memory is terrible. 
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