ArticleJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry2020
Lithium Versus Other Mood-Stabilizing Medications in a Longitudinal Study of Youth Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder.
Article in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 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
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Use of Lithium in Pediatric Bipolar Disorders and Externalizing Childhood- related Disorders: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Current neuropharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Stabilization Beyond Mood: Stabilizing Patients With Bipolar Disorder in the Various Phases of Life.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Lithium Dispensing Patterns in Dutch Youth: Prevalence, Incidence Dosages, and Duration of Use From 2011 to 2022.Bipolar disorders · 2026Article
- Inflammation and treatment strategies for suicidal behavior.The world journal of biological psychiatry : the official journal of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry · 2026Review
- Understanding the Current State of Play of Early Intervention for Bipolar Disorder: Qualitative Analysis of Consultations With International Stakeholders.Bipolar disorders · 2026Article
- Exploring the effects of pharmacological treatments on suicidality in children and adolescents: a structured review of the literature and narrative synthesis.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Review
- 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
- Aggressive Behavior in Children and Adolescents With Bipolar Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review of the Prevalence, Associated Factors, and Treatment.JAACAP open · 2025Review
- 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
- Challenges and opportunities in the diagnosis and treatment of early-onset psychosis: a case series from the youth affective disorders clinic in Stockholm, Sweden.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Assessment and Management of Bipolar Disorder.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2023Article
- Suicide Assessment and Prevention in Bipolar Disorder: How Current Evidence Can Inform Clinical Practice.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2023Article
- Examining Factors Associated With Medication Adherence in Youth With Bipolar Disorder.JAACAP open · 2023Article
- Suicide in young people: screening, risk assessment, and intervention.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Review
- Regional clozapine, ECT and lithium usage inversely associated with excess suicide rates in male adolescents.Nature communications · 2023Article
- A systematic review of interventions in the early course of bipolar disorder I or II: a report of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders Taskforce on early intervention.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2023Review
- Psychopharmacological Treatment Algorithms of Manic/Mixed and Depressed Episodes in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveLithium is the mainstay for bipolar disorder (BD) treatment in adults, but evidence in youths is limited. We used data from the Course and Outcome of Bipolar Youth (COBY) study to assess whether lithium vs other mood-stabilizing medication (OMS) was associated with improved outcomes, including mood symptoms and suicidality.
methodCOBY is a naturalistic, longitudinal study of 413 youths, 7 to 17.11 years old at intake, with BD. At each visit, medication exposure, psychiatric symptoms, and psychosocial function over the preceding follow-up period were assessed using the Adolescent Longitudinal Interval Follow-Up Evaluation. Using mixed models, we determined whether participants taking lithium vs OMS (but not lithium) differed regarding mood symptoms, suicidality, psychosocial function, hospitalization, aggression, and substance use.
resultsA total of 340 participants contributed 2,638 six-month follow-up periods (886 lithium, 1,752 OMS), over a mean follow-up of 10 years. During lithium (vs OMS) follow-up periods, participants were older, less likely to have lifetime anxiety, and less likely to be on antidepressants (p values<.005). After covariate adjustment, the lithium group (vs OMS) had half as many suicide attempts (p = .03), fewer depressive symptoms (p = .004), less psychosocial impairment (p = .003), and less aggression (p = .0004). Similar findings were observed in the subgroup of follow-up periods in which participants were <18 years old.
conclusionFindings are consistent with adult studies, showing that lithium is associated with decreased suicidality, less depression, and better psychosocial functioning. Given the paucity of evidence regarding lithium in children and adolescents, these findings have important clinical implications for the pharmacological management of youths with BD.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.