THE ROLE OF MICRODOSE LITHIUM IN PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Objective. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether administration of microdoses of lithium have an overall impact on the cognitive performance of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Background. Lithium is a potent inhibitor of glycogen synthase-kinase-3-alpha/beta which plays a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, implying that lithium can be used to prevent the progression of dementia for this subset of patients. The amount of studies for this subset is limited and there is no systematic review available on the effectiveness of microdoses of lithium for dementia. Methods. A systematic study was conducted where five different articles were analyzed based on the following criteria: Alzheimer’s patients receiving microdoses of lithium and having measurable cognitive tests from either Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) or Assessment-Scale Cognitive (ADAS-cog). The differences in cognitive performance between the baseline and final data for both control and experimental groups were compared. Results. Regarding the MMSE data, three out of the five case studies showed no benefit with lithium (Macdonald, Forlenza and Hampel). Regarding the ADAS-cog data, three of the four case studies showed a benefit on lithium (Hampel, Lehye and Nunes). Conclusion. This review on research articles demonstrated variable results regarding cognitive performance measured by MMSE. However, when comparing the ADAScog data, lithium treated patients maintained or improved ADAS-cog scores. Patients with sub-standard microdoses of lithium may improve adherence and perhaps increase sample size in future studies. Additional long-term studies are still needed to support the benefit of microdosed-lithium therapy for dementia. Grants. Not Applicabl