Posted by barbaracat on March 22, 2005, at 17:30:06
In reply to thanks barbaracat and ed! » ed_uk, posted by CareBear04 on March 22, 2005, at 16:50:40
I have some fairly recent lab results that show the range as .5-2.0. I agree that even 1.5 is getting way too high. If I stop lithium I'm a mess. Mixed states, racing thoughts, total fracture. There's a happy medium, however, and it's not 'too much', it's 'just right'.
>
> i'm pretty sure 1.2 is the upper level of therapeutic in the U.S. definitely anything above 1.5 is now treated as toxic. i think my former pdoc fell into the mentality of your friend's dr you described. of course, i told him that i felt better with more lithium-- and i did feel like my thoughts were slower and i was sleeping better, though i was really sluggish-- but he didn't think anything below 0.6 was worth taking. for me, we aimed between 0.8 and 1.2, and 1800mg put me at 1.12. it's funny b/c he's otherwise a very liberal, free-thinking pdoc. he's a psychoanalyst and doesn't even prescribe drugs to most of his patients. but on the matter of lithium, he was very old-school in his belief that more is better and his convinction that lithium, when it works, is elegant and unmatchable. i think i've been brainwashed as well. when i'm on lithium, especially higher levels, i hate it and want to go off. when i'm not on it, i start to feel racy and feel like i need to be back on lithium. what a drug! thanks for your thoughts.
poster:barbaracat
thread:461961
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050322/msgs/474181.html