ArticleInternational journal of bipolar disorders2023
Controversies regarding lithium-associated weight gain: case-control study of real-world drug safety data.
Article in International journal of bipolar disorders, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drugs used in psychiatry causing an increase in body weight in children-a review.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Pooled it
- Baseline NMR lipoprotein profiles in lithium-naïve bipolar disorder patients who later showed weight gain during lithium therapy: a pilot study.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2026Article
- Seasonal metabolic oscillation: adiposity cycling as a candidate amplifier of mood seasonality in seasonal affective and bipolar disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Prescribing lithium for the management of persons suffering from bipolar disorders: expert consensus based on a Delphi study.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2025Article
- Twenty-four years of prescription patterns in bipolar disorder inpatients with vs without lithium: a pharmacoepidemiological analysis of 8,707 cases in German-speaking countries.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2025Article
- Twenty-Three Years of Declining Lithium Use: Analysis of a Pharmacoepidemiological Dataset from German-Speaking Countries.Pharmacopsychiatry · 2024Article
- Review
- Effectiveness of ultra-long-term lithium treatment: relevant factors and case series.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2024Review
- International Trends in Lithium Use for Pharmacotherapy and Clinical Correlates in Bipolar Disorder: A Scoping Review.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Why is lithium [not] the drug of choice for bipolar disorder? a controversy between science and clinical practice.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2024Review
- Lithium prescription trends in psychiatric inpatient care 2014 to 2021: data from a Bavarian drug surveillance project.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 10 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe impact of long-term lithium treatment on weight gain has been a controversial topic with conflicting evidence. We aim to assess reporting of weight gain associated with lithium and other mood stabilizers compared to lamotrigine which is considered free of metabolic adverse drug reactions (ADRs).
methodsWe conducted a case/non-case pharmacovigilance study using data from the AMSP project (German: "Arzneimittelsicherheit in der Psychiatrie"; i.e., Drug Safety in Psychiatry), which collects data on ADRs from patients treated in psychiatric hospitals in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. We performed a disproportionality analysis of reports of weight gain (> 10% of baseline body weight) calculating reporting odds ratio (ROR). We compared aripiprazole, carbamazepine, lithium, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, and valproate to lamotrigine. Additional analyses related to different mood stabilizers as reference medication were performed. We also assessed sex and age distributions of weight-gain reports.
resultsWe identified a total of 527 cases of severe drug-induced weight gain representing 7.4% of all severe ADRs. The ROR for lithium was 2.1 (95%CI 0.9-5.1, p > 0.05), which did not reach statistical significance. Statistically significant disproportionate reporting of weight gain was reported for olanzapine (ROR: 11.5, 95%CI 4.7-28.3, p < 0.001), quetiapine (ROR: 3.4, 95%CI 1.3-8.4, p < 0.01), and valproate (ROR: 2.4, 95%CI 1.1-5.0, p = 0.03) compared to lamotrigine. Severe weight gain was more prevalent in non-elderly (< 65 years) than in elderly patients, with an ROR of 7.6 (p < 0.01) in those treated with lithium, and an ROR of 14.7 (p < 0.01) in those not treated with lithium.
conclusionsOur findings suggest that lithium is associated with more reports of severe weight gain than lamotrigine, although this difference did not reach statistical significance. However, lithium use led to fewer reports of severe weight gain than some alternative drugs for long-term medication (olanzapine, quetiapine, and valproate), which is consistent with recent studies. Monitoring of weight gain and metabolic parameters remains essential with lithium and its alternatives.
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