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Comment & Response
July 13, 2022

Complex Interaction of Lithium With Kidney and Bone Health

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 2University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 3Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 4Geri-Party Research Group, Lady Davis Research Institute/Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 5Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
JAMA Psychiatry. 2022;79(9):936. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.1749

To the Editor We read with great interest the article by Köhler-Forsberg et al,1 which found that lithium was associated with a dose-dependent decrease in risk of osteoporosis in patients with bipolar disorder. Fractures are a major concern of patients and are associated with nearly all psychotropic medications2 as well as bipolar affective disorder itself.3 Lithium is an efficacious treatment of bipolar affective disorder and is already underused, according to many experts.4 This study provides a signal for another unique benefit with lithium relative to other mood stabilizers (and even other classes of psychotropic medications like benzodiazepines).

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