Posted by desolationrower on September 25, 2008, at 21:31:13
In reply to Re: Lithium to agument SSRI's in unipolar depressives? » Girlnterrupted78, posted by Phillipa on September 25, 2008, at 21:05:59
It has been used for a while to augment mostly TCAs. There is less evidence for use with sris, but it does appear to help too. It isn't a preferred option (at least in actual practice; it is usually recommended as a 2nd or 3rd line option by 'opinion leader' types) because it has significant side effects, generally requires some blood monitoring, and other options like 2nd antidepressant like bupripion or mirtazapine, thyroid, or just switching antidepressants to a new one also work. It does annoy me when 'authority' types make dumb conclusory statements. it sounds really frustrating.
Also, i couln't open your link, but that sounds like the sort of study that exists. single studies are not always enough to make a treatement decision; here is a review of a number of studies about lithium augmentation, hope it helps. http://server03.cpa-apc.org:8080/Publications/archives/cjp/2003/august/bauer.pdf
-d/r
poster:desolationrower
thread:854094
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080915/msgs/854118.html