Can we check serum lithium levels less often without compromising patient safety?
- Heald, AH
- Holland, D
- Stedman, M
- Davies, M
- Duff, CJ
- Parfitt, C
- Green, L
- Scargill, J
- Taylor, D
- Fryer, AA
DOIAbstract
BACKGROUND: Lithium is viewed as the first-line long-term treatment for prevention of relapse in people with bipolar disorder. AIMS: This study examined factors associated with the likelihood of maintaining serum lithium levels within the recommended range and explored whether the monitoring interval could be extended in some cases. METHOD: We included 46 555 lithium rest requests in 3371 individuals over 7 years from three UK centres. Using lithium results in four categories (<0.4 mmol/L; 0.40-0.79 mmol/L; 0.80-0.99 mmol/L; ≥1.0 mmol/L), we determined the proportion of instances where lithium results remained stable or switched category on subsequent testing, considering the effects of age, duration of lithium therapy and testing history. ...
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