Posted by psyclist on November 10, 2008, at 15:45:13
In reply to Lithium - 300mg? -- Question, posted by ricker on November 7, 2008, at 14:21:31
> I can tolerate 300mgs of lithium maximum.
> Question, If another mood stablizer is added at therapeutic range, will the lithium serve any purpose, or is the dose just too low? Note; when I was on lithium, I could only get to 600mg and the tremors were somewhat intolerable. I believe my blood serum level was 6.4 ?? on 600mgs?
>
> Thanks for your thoughts.
>
> Best, Rick
Hi Rick, you say your tremors were somewhat intolerable - on 600mg? - taken at once? - for how long did you persevere with 600mg? When you say 'somewhat intolerable' what do you mean? I assume you do not mean that it was 'absolutely intolerable'. What are you taking the lithium for? Maybe if you persevered with 600mg for a while longer the tremors (hand tremors?) would diminish as your body aclimatised to the lithium. Just an idea... 6.4 blood serum level on 600mg is quite plausible. I have a history of 30 years of lithium in the range of 800 to 1000mg. At 800mg I had a serum level of about 8 going up higher on 900 and 1000. I have a slight hand tremor, scarcely noticeable on my present dose of 900mg. I would be interested to know just how bad your hand tremor is. Can you hold a cup of coffee without spilling it? If you can't then I would class that as intolerable. At 6.4 I would say you are just approaching the therapeutic range. I am glad lithium at this low dose can still be of benefit to you, though it sounds as though you would like to be shot of the lithium. It does not work for everyone. I do not know what 'scars' I carry from my protracted use of this drug. Good luck!Alan
poster:psyclist
thread:861314
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20081106/msgs/862097.html