Lithium salts have long been used in psychiatry for mood stabilization. Small doses of the light metal protect patients with bipolar disorders and depression from being derived into melancholy or manic phases. British scientists now came across another positive quality of the substance: Apparently, its regular intake is accompanied by a lower risk of developing dementia.
A team of psychiatrists led by Shanquan Chen from the University of Cambridge compiled around 29,000 medical records and analyzed them, among other things, with regard to dementia. 550 of the patients had received lithium due to mental disorders. On average, these people had a lower risk of dementia than the other patients studied – especially after a longer intake of at least five years.
This was true for both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. According to the researchers, the result is all the more surprising because three quarters of the patients in the lithium group had suffered from mania or bipolar disorder. According to previous studies, these diseases significantly increase the risk of developing dementia. The intake of lithium had therefore possibly not only neutralized the greater risk, but turned it into the opposite.
According to the scientists, it is now important to find out whether lithium could also be considered as a treatment option in the case of a dementia that has already been determined or its preliminary stage, the slight cognitive impairment. Corresponding studies are already on the way.
