Posted by Netch on January 23, 2007, at 9:10:34
It seems like Lithium prevents pre-frontal cortex atrophy in depression
"in a part of the pre-frontal cortex of bipolar patients or patients with familial recurring unipolar depression, there was almost a 40% reduction in the amount of gray matter. That was a remarkable finding that you have such a reduction in a discrete part of brain."
"He had a small group of patients who had been treated with lithium for a long time and they did not show the brain atrophy compared with the bipolar patients. Interestingly all of the patients with unipolar depression, whether or not they had been treated with antidepressants, still showed the atrophy. That was a suggestion that bipolar treatments might have a protective effect."
"We found that in animals, with a dose of lithium that is one-half or one-third of a usual dose, you still get a large increase in bcl-2, a neuroprotective protein. This suggests that it is quite possible that even low-dose lithium will exert these effects. "
http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/meds/ManjiLithium.htm
poster:Netch
thread:725486
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070119/msgs/725486.html