Suggest Dosage For Lithium

Posted on Thu, 13 Oct 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 13 Oct 2016 Answered on

Wed, 9 Nov 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : hi Dr. Mendiratta, and I hope that you had a safe and successful trip. The bad news is that my medications stopped working. After I told that to Dr. XXXXXXX last week he wasn't sure what to do next. Eventually he prescribed wellbutrin which gives the other antidepressants a boost. Doctors always prescribe pills to make a patient feel better but they never take any away. I tried it myself. I broke my 450mg dose of lithium in half and it's made a difference---a big difference. No, 450mg is not a large dose of lithium but it's too large for me. I'm going to take 225 mg lithium for a couple weeks and then get off of it. All of my symptoms are better including my light headedness when I walk. Would you have ever thought of doing such a thing? XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Naval Mendiratta (45 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Lithium Dosing

Detailed Answer:
good evening XXXXXXX

Well, to my fear it has happened that at some point medicines stop working.All of them do have a saturation...

But that s a good thing that the half dose of lithium is working for you...No matter how qualified the doctors are, it is a very difficult to predict if medicines interact with each other. And there is always a high chance one medicine is reducing the effect of the other....So maybe reducing the dose of lithium , made the action of others better

These permutation combination is something you can try..We are always a bit scared to try new things... A lot of medicine is still unexplored...Only a man, who knows his medicines well can try such things..never a doctor

Hope you are doing better now

Take care

Regards
Dr Naval

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Naval Mendiratta (44 hours later)

hi Dr. Mendiratta, I don't think lithium EVER WORKED for me and was causing this problem ever since I started it. A nurse is looking up when I started the drug as I know when I started feeling bad. They seem to coincide. The jury is still out as it's been only a week. I'm still reading Cognitive Behavior Therapy just for my own benefit. I think that I'm better off getting off of lithium altogether. XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Naval Mendiratta (18 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Further Course

Detailed Answer:
Good evening

Well, with lithium I had told you once earlier also to get the levels checked as it is a known cause of fatigue. It can cause a few electrolyte disturbances which may precipitate fatigue especially if the level in the blood is high. But you do have a long list of other medicines also, so difficult to pin point which one could be the cause. As long as you are feeling better off it, we can hold the drug....

Hope rest all s fine at your end

Take care

Regards
Dr naval

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Nagamani Ng