ArticlePharmacoepidemiology and drug safety2026
The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic Restrictions on Laboratory Monitoring of Lithium Treated Outpatients in the Netherlands: A Controlled Interrupted Time Series Analysis.
Article in Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe COVID-19 pandemic restricted healthcare access. Mental illness in combination with isolation and fear of the virus possibly decreased routine monitoring for lithium using patients during the lockdown. Our aim was to study if monitoring frequencies and serum level values for lithium, TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), and renal function changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsUsing the PHARMO database (laboratory, pharmacy, and hospitalization data), we identified lithium users in The Netherlands over 2 years (14 October 2018-14 October 2020). The first year served as the control period; the second year was divided into pre-COVID, lockdown, and post-lockdown segments. A time series analysis with a linear regression model was performed to test for differences in monitoring frequency and aberrant serum levels at the beginning of the lockdown (immediate effect) and during the lockdown (post-lockdown trend, effect over 12 weeks).
resultsWe identified 2835 patients using lithium. Monitoring measurements declined by 52% (7.74% vs. 4.01%) for lithium serum levels, 28% (5.56% vs. 4.20%) for TSH, and 26% (17.7% vs. 13.2%) for renal function in the first week of lockdown. These reductions were statistically significant compared to the control period. Monitoring for all measurements gradually recovered during lockdown. Changes in aberrant serum levels were not statistically different during the exposure and control periods.
conclusionMonitoring for lithium, TSH and renal function declined at the beginning of lockdown. However, it is unlikely that postponed laboratory measurements had clinically relevant negative treatment effects since no differences in aberrant serum levels were identified.
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.