Lithium Builds Gray Matter In Patients with Bipolar Disorder
Lithium, considered the standard therapy for bipolar disorder for at least 50 years, has been found to increase the amount of gray matter in the brains of patients with the illness.
Neuroscientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, used high-resolution, three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map the entire surface of the brain. They compared the brains of bipolar patients taking lithium with those of patients without the disorder and those of bipolar patients not taking lithium. The volume of gray matter in the brains of those taking lithium was as much as 15% higher in areas that regulate attention, motivation, and emotions, although the total volume of white matter did not differ between the groups.
Bipolar disorder is characterized by a wide range of emotions between mania and depression, but it is not clear how lithium helps in controlling severe mood swings. These new findings indicate that lithium might work by increasing the amount of gray matter in certain brain areas; this suggests that existing gray matter in these regions of bipolar brains might be underused or dysfunctional.
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It was not clear whether the increase in gray matter would persist if lithium treatment were discontinued.
