Posted by Squiggles on August 17, 2007, at 22:28:06
In reply to Re: Did Lithium make me irritable and anti-social?, posted by linkadge on August 17, 2007, at 21:55:08
> >As for Robin Williams, his genius resulted
> >from mania when he was at his peak;
>
> Genious does not result from illness.It does, and particularly with manic-depression;
>
> Sexual dysfunction for instance can be a "side effect" of lithium. Ie, a stable person on lithium can have sexual dysfunction. One could argue (incorrectly) that lithium only decreased the mania, and therby decreased the sexual drive.Lithium does not affect libido, except when decreasing the hypersexuality during manic states.
>
> If a person on lithium can experience decreased sexual desire when stable on lithium, why is it so inconcievable that they experience decreased creativity?Because creativity involves all the areas of the brain including memory, language, emotion, imagination, motivation, associative functions, etc. Whereas sexual desire is distinctly topical.
>
> I can give you one possably explination. Lithium lowers DHEA, a powerful steroid hormone that is involved in differentiation of cells in certain regions of the brain. DHEA acts at sig-1r receptors to increase neurite outgrowth in the presence of nerve growth factor. By decreasing DHEA, lithium would reduce such outgrowth and possably creativity. Of course this is speculative, but a possability nonetheless.
>
>
> Reduced DHEA is observable in mice reciving lithum with normal DHEA levels. Ie there is evidence that lithium can lower DHEA levels even when they are normal.
>
> http://biopsychiatry.com/lithium-dhea.htmThis DHEA theory is just one among many explanations of how lithium works. The ion transfer is an early one, the glutamate theory, the endocrine theory-- this one has to do with its effect on neurochemistry. But lithium is unique in its ability to allow existing chemicals in the brain to pass through cellular openings. I don't know much about it but it is unique in this way, unlike the drugs which alter neurological states.
Squiggles
>
>
> >should lower the li for hypomania does not
> >mean that he lacks creativiy on lithium; just
> >that he lacks the euphoric, exceptionally
> >wild comic genius - in itself a creative
> >rarity.
>
> If Robin is creative only when he is hypomanic, and the lithium kills the hypomania, than lithium has, by default, has killed his creativity.
>
> To me it seems nonsensicle that somebody would try to dismiss what many lithium users have reported.
>
> Linkadge
>
poster:Squiggles
thread:776541
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070815/msgs/776867.html