• Lithium may decrease risk of developing

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Thu Mar 17 22:30:46 2022
    Lithium may decrease risk of developing dementia

    Date:
    March 17, 2022
    Source:
    University of Cambridge
    Summary:
    Researchers have identified a link suggesting that lithium could
    decrease the risk of developing dementia, which affects nearly
    one million people in the UK.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers have identified a link suggesting that lithium could decrease
    the risk of developing dementia, which affects nearly one million people
    in the UK.


    ==========================================================================
    The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, conducted a
    retrospective analysis of the health records of nearly 30,000 patients
    from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. The patients
    were all over the age of 50 and accessed NHS mental health services
    between 2005 and 2019.

    The analysis suggested that patients who received lithium were less
    likely to develop dementia than those who did not, although the overall
    number of patients who received lithium was small.

    Their findings, reported in the journal PLoS Medicine, support the
    possibility that lithium could be a preventative treatment for dementia,
    and could be progressed to large randomised controlled trials.

    Dementia is the leading cause of death in elderly Western populations,
    but no preventative treatments are currently available: more than 55
    million people worldwide have dementia, with Alzheimer's disease the
    most common form.

    "The number of people with dementia continues to grow, which puts huge
    pressure on healthcare systems," said Dr Shanquan Chen from Cambridge's Department of Psychiatry, the paper's first author. "It's been estimated
    that delaying the onset of dementia by just five years could reduce its prevalence and economic impact by as much as 40 percent." Previous
    studies have proposed lithium as a potential treatment for those who
    have already been diagnosed with dementia or early cognitive impairment,
    but it is unclear whether it can delay or even prevent the development
    of dementia altogether, as these studies have been limited in size.



    ========================================================================== Lithium is a mood stabiliser usually prescribed for conditions such
    as bipolar affective disorder and depression. "Bipolar disorder and
    depression are considered to put people at increased risk of dementia,
    so we had to make sure to account for this in our analysis," said Chen.

    Chen and his colleagues analysed data from patients who accessed mental
    health services from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation
    Trust between 2005 and 2019. Patients were all over 50 years of age,
    received at least a one-year follow-up appointment, and had not been
    previously diagnosed with either mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

    Of the 29,618 patients in the study cohort, 548 patients had been treated
    with lithium and 29,070 had not. Their mean age was just under 74 years,
    and approximately 40% of patients were male.

    For the group that had received lithium, 53, or 9.7%, were diagnosed with dementia. For the group that had not received lithium, 3,244, or 11.2%,
    were diagnosed with dementia.

    After controlling for factors such as smoking, other medications, and
    other physical and mental illnesses, lithium use was associated with a
    lower risk of dementia, both for short and long-term users. However,
    since the overall number of patients receiving lithium was small and
    this was an observational study, larger clinical trials would be needed
    to establish lithium as a potential treatment for dementia.

    Another limitation of the study was the number of patients who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is normally associated with an
    increased risk of dementia. "We expected to find that patients with
    bipolar disorder were more likely to develop dementia, since that is the
    most common reason to be prescribed lithium, but our analysis suggested
    the opposite," said Chen. "It's far too early to say for sure, but it's possible that lithium might reduce the risk of dementia in people with
    bipolar disorder." This paper supports others which have suggested
    lithium might be helpful in dementia. Further experimental medicine and clinical studies are now needed to see if lithium really is helpful in
    these conditions.

    The research was supported in part by the UK Medical Research Council and
    the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical
    Research Centre.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Cambridge. Note:
    Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Shanquan Chen, Benjamin R. Underwood, Peter B. Jones, Jonathan
    R. Lewis,
    Rudolf N. Cardinal. Association between lithium use and the
    incidence of dementia and its subtypes: A retrospective
    cohort study. PLOS Medicine, 2022; 19 (3): e1003941 DOI:
    10.1371/journal.pmed.1003941 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220317143710.htm

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