ArticleBMC psychiatry2010
Standards of lithium monitoring in mental health Ttrusts in the UK.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Electronic Health Record-Nested Reminders for Serum Lithium Level Monitoring in Patients With Mood Disorder: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- Lithium for Radiation-Induced Damage in Pediatric Brain Tumors: Preclinical Evidence and Clinical Perspectives.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Lithium: Old Drug, New tricks?Current psychiatry reports · 2025Review
- Lithium Point-of-Care Testing to Improve Adherence to Monitoring Guidelines and Quality of Maintenance Therapy: Protocol for a Randomised Feasibility Trial.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Exploring the clinical factors affecting lithium dose and plasma level and the effect of brand.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Can we check serum lithium levels less often without compromising patient safety?BJPsych open · 2021Article
- Predicting Serum Levels of Lithium-Treated Patients: A Supervised Machine Learning Approach.Biomedicines · 2021Article
- Serum Lithium monitoring in non-psychiatric wards in a university hospital.Irish journal of medical science · 2021Article
- Serum lithium test requesting across three UK regions: an evaluation of adherence to monitoring guidelines.BMC psychiatry · 2021Article
- Real-time particle-by-particle detection of erythrocyte-camouflaged microsensor with extended circulation time in the bloodstream.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Article
- Compliance with the guidelines for laboratory monitoring of patients treated with lithium: A retrospective follow-up study among ambulatory patients in the Netherlands.Bipolar disorders · 2019Article
- Safety monitoring of treatment in bipolar disorder in a tertiary care setting in Sri Lanka and recommendations for improved monitoring in resource limited settings.BMC psychiatry · 2019Article
- Design and methods of the 'monitoring outcomes of psychiatric pharmacotherapy' (MOPHAR) monitoring program - a study protocol.BMC health services research · 2019Article
- Suboxone Treatment and Recovery Trial (STAR-T): Study Protocol for a Randomised Controlled Trial of Opioid Medication Assisted Treatment with Adjunctive Medication Management Using Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Contingency Management.Journal of addiction · 2019Article
- Monitoring of patients treated with lithium for bipolar disorder: an international survey.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2018Article
- Prevalence of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring for Lithium and the Impact of Regulatory Warnings: Analysis Using Japanese Claims Database.Therapeutic drug monitoring · 2018Article
- Monitoring of somatic parameters at outpatient departments for mood and anxiety disorders.PloS one · 2018Article
- Outcomes of patient education practices to optimize the safe use of lithium: A literature review.The mental health clinician · 2018Article
- Spectrophotometric analysis of lithium carbonate used for bipolar disorder.Biomedical optics express · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLithium is a commonly prescribed drug with a narrow therapeutic index, and recognised adverse effects on the kidneys and thyroid. Clinical guidelines for the management of bipolar affective disorder published by The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommend checks of renal and thyroid function before lithium is prescribed. They further recommend that all patients who are prescribed lithium should have their renal and thyroid function checked every six months, and their serum lithium checked every three months. Adherence to these recommendations has not been subject to national UK audit.
methodsThe Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health (POMH-UK) invited all National Health Service Mental Health Trusts in the UK to participate in a benchmarking audit of lithium monitoring against recommended standards. Data were collected retrospectively from clinical records and submitted electronically.
results436 clinical teams from 38 Trusts submitted data for 3,373 patients. In patients recently starting lithium, there was a documented baseline measure of renal or thyroid function in 84% and 82% respectively. For patients prescribed lithium for a year or more, the NICE standards for monitoring lithium serum levels, and renal and thyroid function were met in 30%, 55% and 50% of cases respectively.
conclusionsThe quality of lithium monitoring in patients who are in contact with mental health services falls short of recognised standards and targets. Findings from this audit, along with reports of harm received by the National Patient Safety Agency, prompted a Patient Safety Alert mandating primary care, mental health and acute Trusts, and laboratory staff to work together to ensure systems are in place to support recommended lithium monitoring by December 2010.
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