Lithium Increases the Volume of the Prefrontal Cortex in Responders
Studies have indicated that lithium increases gray matter and the volume of the cortex and hippocampus in patients with bipolar I disorder. A poster presented by S. Selek et al. at the 5th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders described a longitudinal study of fronto-limbic brain structures in patients with bipolar I disorder during lithium treatment.
This study reported that patients whose illness failed to respond to lithium had smaller right amygdalas than euthymic bipolar I patients or healthy controls. After treatment with lithium, those who responded well to the drug showed significant enlargement of the left prefrontal cortex and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, while those who responded poorly to lithium showed decreases in the volume of their left hippocampus and right anterior cingulate cortex.
Editor’s Note: This is one of several studies that suggest a relationship between volume of brain regions and degree of response to lithium. These data add to the remarkably consistent literature suggesting that lithium may have neurotrophic and neuro-protective effects, potentially because of the drug’s ability to increase neuroprotective factors such as BDNF and Bcl-2 while decreasing cell death factors such as BAX and p53.
