Posted by Cam W. on August 12, 2000, at 12:53:07
In reply to CAM, SUNNELY.....et al - Lithium, posted by Greg on August 12, 2000, at 12:16:01
Greg - Lithium is usually dosed according to a doctor's clinical experience. Many docs use a dose of 15 to 20mg/kg (900mg to 1800mg) in divided doses for acute mania and tend to lower the dose in maintenance therapy; once the acute episode resolves (usually in a week or two). Consider your side effects as transient and should resolve upon maintenance dosage adjustment.
Hang on for a couple of weeks, unless the side effects become intolerable, then call your doc to see how he/she prefers to handle this situation. Usually this involves a slight lowering of dose, but don't do it on your own because of the narrow therapeutic window that lithium has (narrow range between minimum effective dose and toxic dose).
The doc will then adjust your dose to keep you in a therapeutic range of 0.8 to 1.2 mmol/L.
Greg, you say you are uniformed when it come to drugs. That's why we all hang out here. Even textbooks and journals usually don't give an accurate view of how drugs work in the real world. Here is where we hear how these drugs affect people. If it wasn't for boards like this and clinical experience, Effexor™ would have not withdrawl effects, Zyprexa™ would not cause weight gain, and SSRIs would not cause sexual dysfunction (yeah, right! - sarcasm).
Hope this helps - Cam
poster:Cam W.
thread:42681
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000811/msgs/42687.html