Posted by cache-monkey on March 21, 2005, at 23:09:45
In reply to Re: Lithium and the Urinary Tract: Does system adjust? » cache-monkey, posted by Ritch on March 20, 2005, at 22:57:05
[thirst and urinary frequency]
<< I always had trouble with that when I was on lithium.. It did settle down *somewhat* after a dose increase, or became more tolerable on the same dose after some time on it.. but it never just vanished. Maybe you can get by on a lower blood level? In my case, blood levels above .6mEQ didn't improve things very much, lithium wasn't a real potent antimanic for me, and its antidepressant effects were as good as they were ever going to get at levels between .3 -.5mEQ. >>
I feel like I was doing alright at 900 mg/day, with a level of 0.41. It's only at 1200 mg/day that the whole thirst and urinary frequency thing has gotten excessive. The annoying thing, though is that at the higher dose I've been feeling much better mentally.
I explained my symptoms to my pdoc. He suggests discontinuing. I'm going to do so step-wise, lowering to 600 mg/day first. If the symptoms resolve, I'd like to take another crack at 900 mg/day and stay there. Hopefully it will get better!
Anyway, thanks for the info.
Best,
cache-monkey
poster:cache-monkey
thread:473276
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050317/msgs/473844.html