Posted by Ritch on March 25, 2003, at 23:28:58
In reply to Lithium - Blood levels/dose, need advice NOW!, posted by ace on March 25, 2003, at 21:16:49
> My first blood plasma test for lithium came up at 0.2 - not a very therapeutic level. I was on Lithium three days preceding this test - 2 days at 250mg and 1 day at 500mg.
>
> Went to Dr.'s today. Got another test. Results in Friday. Before todays test I was at 500mg for 5 days. We both agreed to up the dose to 750mg. I really wouldn't want to go higher. Do you think this will bring me up to 0.6 or higher blood levels?
>
> Any other comments please?
>
> Ace.Don't sweat the "therapeutic levels" thing when it comes to using lithium to treat something other than acute mania-IMO. Those levels were *established* based on the correlation of blood levels with antimanic therapeutic effect in acute manic patients (and also as antimanic maintenance for BP-I). "Sub-therapeutic" levels have been helpful for many with BP-II, cyclothmia, or augmentation for depression and other disorders. I never had any full-blown manic episodes and 300-450mg worked surprisingly well for years to control the milder short-term highs that I get.
poster:Ritch
thread:212746
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030325/msgs/212840.html