ReviewBipolar disorders2009
The role of lithium in the treatment of bipolar disorder: convergent evidence for neurotrophic effects as a unifying hypothesis.
Review in Bipolar disorders, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 139 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
139 citing papers in PubMed, 361 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of short-term quetiapine and lithium therapy for acute manic or mixed episodes on the limbic system and emotion regulation circuitry in youth with bipolar disorder.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Long-term lithium treatment reduces glucose metabolism in the cerebellum and hippocampus of nondemented older adults: an [¹⁸F]FDG-PET study.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2014Trial
- Article
- Lithium as a Potential Senostatic Agent in Central Nervous System Aging and Bipolar Disorder.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Docosahexaenoic acid modulates myo-inositol and myo-inositol biosynthetic genes expression: implications for bipolar disorder.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2026Article
- The science of psychedelic medicine.Nature medicine · 2026Review
- Protein Kinases in Alzheimer's Disease: Pioneering Insights into Pathogenesis and Therapeutic Breakthroughs.Current neuropharmacology · 2026Review
- Controlled Magnesium Ion Delivery via Mg-Sputtered Nerve Conduit for Enhancing Peripheral Nerve Regeneration.Advanced healthcare materials · 2025Article
- The Potential of Using Screening Tools for Bipolar Disorder to Predict Lithium Response.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Periodic Table of Immunomodulatory Elements and Derived Two-Dimensional Biomaterials.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Lithium-induced nephrogenic diabetes insipidus following improved medication compliance: a case report.Journal of medical case reports · 2025Article
- The interplay of homeostasis, inflammation, and oxidative stress in neurodegenerative disorders: the role of biological markers, antioxidants, lithium, and TMS - a proposed framework for preventing neurodegenerative disorders through biomarkers and multimodal therapies.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Isotope-specific lithium bioactivity - physiological reality or laboratory oddity?Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Biomarker of Illness State in Bipolar Disorder: A Critical Review.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Primary cilia suppress the fibrotic activity of atrial fibroblasts from patients with atrial fibrillation in vitro.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- New Advances in the Pharmacology and Toxicology of Lithium: A Neurobiologically Oriented Overview.Pharmacological reviews · 2024Review
- Influence of Magnesium Degradation on Schwannoma Cell Responses to Nerve Injury Using an In Vitro Injury Model.Journal of functional biomaterials · 2024Article
- Characterization of theAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2024Article
- Pharmacotherapy causing weight gain and metabolic alteration in those with obesity and obesity-related conditions: A review.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2024Review
79 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Lithium has been and continues to be the mainstay of bipolar disorder (BD) pharmacotherapy for acute mood episodes, switch prevention, prophylactic treatment, and suicide prevention. Lithium is also the definitive proof-of-concept agent in BD, although it has recently been studied in other psychoses as well as diverse neurodegenerative disorders. Its neurotrophic effects can be viewed as a unifying model to explain several integrated aspects of the pathophysiology of mood disorders and putative therapeutics for those disorders. Enhancing neuroprotection (which directly involves neurotrophic effects) is a therapeutic strategy intended to slow or halt the progression of neuronal loss, thus producing long-term benefits by favorably influencing outcome and preventing either the onset of disease or clinical decline. The present article: (i) reviews what has been learned regarding lithium's neurotrophic effects since Cade's original studies with this compound; (ii) presents human data supporting the presence of cellular atrophy and death in BD as well as neurotrophic effects associated with lithium in human studies; (iii) describes key direct targets of lithium involved in these neurotrophic effects, including neurotrophins, glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3), and mitochondrial/endoplasmic reticulum key proteins; and (iv) discusses lithium's neurotrophic effects in models of apoptosis and excitotoxicity as well as its potential neurotrophic effects in models of neurological disorders. Taken together, the evidence reviewed here suggests that lithium's neurotrophic effects in BD are an example of an old molecule acting as a new proof-of-concept agent. Continued work to decipher lithium's molecular actions will likely lead to the development of not only improved therapeutics for BD, but to neurotrophic enhancers that could prove useful in the treatment of many other illnesses.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.