Lithium has been generic since the day it was released, but a branded formulation is underdevelopment

that hopes to make the medication safer and easier to take.

Welcome to the Carlet Psychiatry Podcast, keeping psychiatry honest since 2003.

I'm Chris Aiken, the editor-in-chief of the Carlat

Psychiatry Report. And I'm Kelly Newsom, a psych NP and a dedicated reader of every issue.

361 papers on lithium. That's what we combed through in 2023. And that's after removing the

articles on batteries. In the end, we

whittled it down to 25 papers that informed our practice. It was hard. It means we don't get to

share how lithium is being repurposed as an anti-cancer drug, how lithium changes circadian rhythms

in bees, and a study of what happens when you ask chat

GBT about lithium.

We also cut two large analyses that, surprisingly, showed no significant weight gain on lithium,

only non-significant trends.

We covered those two papers last month in our November 13th podcast, the one on ketamine,

six new findings part two.

And this is part two, the final part of our lithium updates, and let's recap what we

learned last week.

One, lithium has moved up to first lining guidelines for the early course of bipolar disorder because

it can nip the disease in the bud.

The average patient is more likely to stay well, function well, and live longer on it.

2.

Lithium may not have had the brand name shine of the atypical antipsychotics in bipolar depression,

...