Posted by barbaracat on March 22, 2005, at 15:44:25
In reply to Lithium: to barbara and carebear, posted by ed_uk on March 22, 2005, at 13:25:17
>
> What's your level? Maybe 0.3? Just a random guess!**You're right on. My levels have consistently been .3 on 600mg.
>
> My friend's pdoc wanted him at a minimum of 0.8 for unipolar depression w/ prominent fatigue! This was despite the fact that his depression got worse at 1200mg (0.7), she wanted to increase to 1500mg- he refused! I don't think he'd even be able to get out of bed if he was on 1500mg.
>
**That's criminal! What on earth would a unipolar depressive be doing on that much lithium?My friend on another thread, Cache Monkey, just got word from his pdoc to stop lithium immediately because of concerns of diabetes incipidus. He was having polyuria and excessive thirst. It's my partial understanding that he was doing ok on 900mg but not in the therapeutic range, so his doc pushed the dose until he felt miserable. Sigh. We just want to get better. Why can't pdocs have patience and monitor the response at a less than 'therapeutic range'? For some people, this range is proving to be toxic. For me, .3 is just fine, but even I was having some concerns from metabolites in my urine that pointed to lithium induced diabetes - which it turns out I don't have. But still, we need to be careful with this stuff and be provided with a long list of the many drugs and foods that interact with it.
poster:barbaracat
thread:461961
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050322/msgs/474107.html