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Lithium: Long-Term Effects on the Kidney

A Prospective Follow-up Study Ten Years after Kidney Biopsy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ole Hetmar ,
Uffe Juul Povlsen ,
Jørgen Ladefoged  and
Tom G. Bolwig
Ole Hetmar*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen
Uffe Juul Povlsen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen
Jørgen Ladefoged
Affiliation:
Department of Nephrology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Tom G. Bolwig
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen
*
Sct. Hans Hospital, Dept. M, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
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Abstract

Forty-six patients with recurrent affective disorders, who began prophylactic treatment with lithium an average of 20 years previously, were followed up prospectively after a ten-year observation period to assess renal function. Nineteen patients had maintained lithium therapy, and eight patients had died. Tubular function was almost unchanged and patients who had continued lithium had not shown increasing urine volumes, but patients who had received lithium in a single daily dosage at night had a significantly lower urinary output than those on a multiple-dosage schedule. The GFR decreased significantly, but the decline was essentially dependent on increasing age, except in two patients who had developed renal insufficiency. Renal function during chronic lithium treatment is related to age, lithium intoxication episodes, pre-existing renal disease, and treatment schedule rather than to duration of prophylactic lithium therapy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 158 , Issue 1 , January 1991 , pp. 53 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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