Trial reportPediatrics2015
Lithium in the Acute Treatment of Bipolar I Disorder: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study.
Trial report in Pediatrics, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
38 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 157 citations in OpenAlex.
- Treatment of Early-Onset Specified and Unspecified Bipolar Disorders: A Systematic Review and Strategies for Identifying and Managing a Thermally Dysregulated Subtype in Children.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2025Pooled it
- Drugs used in psychiatry causing an increase in body weight in children-a review.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Pooled it
- Use of Lithium in Pediatric Bipolar Disorders and Externalizing Childhood- related Disorders: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Current neuropharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Lithium for acute mania.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Putative Mechanisms of Action and Clinical Use of Lithium in Children and Adolescents: A Critical Review.Current neuropharmacology · 2019Pooled it
- Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) and International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) 2018 guidelines for the management of patients with bipolar disorder.Bipolar disorders · 2018Guideline
- Findings from a pilot open-label trial of N-acetylcysteine for the treatment of pediatric mania and hypomania.BMC psychiatry · 2022Trial
- A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Trial of Lithium Versus Quetiapine for the Treatment of Acute Mania in Youth with Early Course Bipolar Disorder.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Lithium for the Maintenance Treatment of Bipolar I Disorder: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Discontinuation Study.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2019Trial
- Response and Adverse Effects to Lithium Treatment in Patients With Bipolar Disorder at Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.BioMed research international · 2026Article
- UBE3A stabilization of β-catenin preserves synaptic proteins essential for motor and cognitive functions in Angelman Syndrome.Molecular autism · 2025Article
- Can Adjunctive Lithium Therapy Influence Emotional Dysregulation in Adolescents? Findings from a Retrospective Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Pediatric Bipolar Disorder: Challenges in Diagnosis and Treatment.Paediatric drugs · 2025Review
- Creativity in Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology: Study Design and Oral Dosage Forms.The journal of pediatric pharmacology and therapeutics : JPPT : the official journal of PPAG · 2024Article
- Lithium, the gold standard drug for bipolar disorder: analysis of current clinical studies.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2024Review
- Efficacy and Safety of Lithium for Suicide and Suicide-Related Behaviors in Youth: A Review of the Literature.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Extended-Release Lithium Treatment for Adolescents with Bipolar Disorder with or Without Comorbid Autism Spectrum Disorder: Protocol of a Longitudinal Prospective Naturalistic Study for the Assessment of Efficacy and Tolerability.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- What Patients with Bipolar Disorder Need to Know about Lithium.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- A Critical Review of the Psychomotor Agitation Treatment in Youth.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Long-term use of antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and antipsychotics in pediatric patients with a focus on appropriate deprescribing.The mental health clinician · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 13 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLithium is a benchmark treatment for bipolar disorder in adults. Definitive studies of lithium in pediatric bipolar I disorder (BP-I) are lacking.
methodsThis multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of pediatric participants (ages 7-17 years) with BP-I/manic or mixed episodes compared lithium (n = 53) versus placebo (n = 28) for up to 8 weeks. The a priori primary efficacy measure was change from baseline to the end of study (week 8/ET) in the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) score, based on last-observation-carried-forward analysis.
resultsThe change in YMRS score was significantly larger in lithium-treated participants (5.51 [95% confidence interval: 0.51 to 10.50]) after adjustment for baseline YMRS score, age group, weight group, gender, and study site (P = .03). Overall Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scores favored lithium (n = 25; 47% very much/much improved) compared with placebo (n = 6; 21% very much/much improved) at week 8/ET (P = .03). A statistically significant increase in thyrotropin concentration was seen with lithium (3.0 ± 3.1 mIU/L) compared with placebo (-0.1 ± 0.9 mIU/L; P < .001). There was no statistically significant between-group difference with respect to weight gain.
conclusionsLithium was superior to placebo in reducing manic symptoms in pediatric patients treated for BP-I in this clinical trial. Lithium was generally well tolerated in this patient population and was not associated with weight gain, distinguishing it from other agents commonly used to treat youth with bipolar disorder.
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Registered trials
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