Lithium is a decades-old treatment for bipolar disorder, profoundly effective in those who react. It comes with a few side effects, and lithium has been superseded in huge part by newer mood stabilizers. But lithium’s effectiveness in the one-third of bipolar patients who react to the medicate compares favorably with the newer medications. Neglect of this reasonable medicine implies bipolar patients who could be helped never get a chance to encounter its benefit.
Until now, analysts have not caught on why these patients have not reacted to the common treatment, whereas others have reacted well to the drug. Now as the universal Consortium on Lithium Genetics, the bunch has considered the underlying hereditary qualities of more than 2500 patients treated with lithium for bipolar disorder. Researchers found that patients clinically analyzed with bipolar disorder who showed a poor reaction to lithium treatment all shared something in common: a high number of genes already recognized for schizophrenia, This doesn't prove
that the patient too had schizophrenia -- but in case a bipolar patient features a high 'gene load' of schizophrenia hazard genes, our research appears they are less likely to reply to mood stabilizers such as lithium. In addition, researchers identified new genes within the immune system that will play a vital biological part within the underlying pathways of lithium and its effect on treatment response.
Clinical studies have appeared as well that the treatment reaction and result show up to be particular for the different types of mood stabilizers. Patients who react to lithium display qualitative contrasts with patients reacting to other medicines, such as valproate, carbamazepine or lamotrigine. Reactions to carbamazepine had atypical clinical highlights, such as mood-incongruent psychosis, an age at onset of illness below 30 years old, and a negative family history of mood disorders. Additionally, in a study comparing the phenotypic spectra in responders to lithium versus lamotrigine, the probands contrasted with regard to the clinical course (with rapid cycling and non-episodic course within the lamotrigine gather) and co-morbidity, with the lamotrigine-responder group appearing a better recurrence of panic attacks and substance abuse.
In conclusion, pharmacogenetic studies may give important clues to the nature of bipolar disorder and the response to long-term treatment.
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