According to this article from Science Daily, mice can be made manic by removing a certain gene. And, they can benefit from treatment with Lithium, just as manic humans can.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080312081256.htm
I wonder if they used the generic or the brand name? Lithium Carbonate or Lithium Orotate?
Interesting. I feel sorry for the mice involved in these studies. I’m not sure what that has to do with anything, but it’s true. Don’t you wonder what a manic mouse is thinking?
Eeek.
9 Comments
First of all – I love your picture, I was a huge fan of Mighty Mouse growing up. Totally underrated cartoon character. “Here I come to save the day…!”
Secondly, I noticed in the article that the mice were more prone to “risk-taking”. I would be curious to see what risks the mice took.
Good point. I would think the usual suspects. Gambling, substance abuse, delusions of grandeur.
And Mighty Mouse was great. It makes you wonder though, doesn’t it. Maybe he wasn’t underrated. Maybe he was just manic and needed some help. Perhaps he has since sought treatment and is now happily working a nice, steady government desk job.
[edited to add: this comment is all in fun. i do take mania very seriously. you gotta be able to laugh a little though or it would all just be a bit much, you know?]
What is the difference between Lithium Carbonate and Lithium Orotate? I take the carbonate and I didn’t know there was another version.
LOL…excellent. Same thought – how would a mouse take risks and how could the scientists tell? Were they driving their mouse motorcycles really fast? Having relations with high-risk partners? Sharing needles?
And yes, we have to find our humor somewhere, even if it is dark and people who don’t live this life find it disturbing. I mean, Carter’s delusion of super spit? Being delusional is never funny, except when it IS.
Lithium Orotate is an over-the-counter form of Lithium that is a different compound/form of Lithium . I will see if HB (Hotbrain’s Bipolar Life) can tell us more. If I remember correctly she takes Lithium Orotate as she had bad side effects from Lithium Carbonate.
Super spit. That’s a good one. Couldn’t we all use a bit of that at times?
It’s so not funny but it IS!
“These mice showed many of the symptoms of mania, including hyperactivity, aggressiveness, driven or increased goal-directed pursuits, risk-taking, and super-sensitivity to amphetamine.”
I’m imagining Adderall induced mice fighting each other to leap from windows in pursuit of carbs and sugar–like a blueberry cheese cake.
I have visons of mice, gambling, drinking and enagaging in high risk sex while sharing needles. Its a vision that is somewhere between hilarious and a bad trip!
Not of course that I have any idea what that would be like. Of course.
Thanks for mentioning the lithium orotate. It’s not well known and not popular among doctors. This is because there are very few scientific studies and most evidence that it works is just anecdotal.
Lithium orotate is a supplement and available without prescription in the United States. There have only been a handful of studies that have been done on it. One study done on rats in 1979 concluded that lithium orotate can cause kidney fuction problems, but the rat was given the same dose of lithium carbonate as lithium orotate. Some people believe that this study is misleading because lithium orotate is effective at lower doses than lithium carbonate.
However, lithium orotate is puzzling because the doses that it is effective at don’t cause the person to reach the therapeutic range for their blood lithium level. When doctors prescribe lithium carbonate, they check the patient’s lithium level, and generally try to maintain a therapeutic blood level of 0.6 – 1.2 mmol/L. However, with lithium orotate, the effective dose often does not cause the person’s blood level to reach that range; in fact, the lithium blood level is so low that it may not be measurable. This is theorized because the lithium goes into the cells rather than stays in the blood. I’m not sure if I understand this, but it seems to cause the lithium to be effective at a lower dose, which also seems to cause less side effects. Lithium can be toxic at blood levels above 1.5 mmol/L, which is also why blood level tests are usually done with lithium carbonate.
In any case, I take 4 pills of Lithium Orotate every day. Each pill is 150mg which contains 4.8 mg of elemental lithium. Some people have found effectiveness with just 1 pill a day. For awhile I was taking 3 a day. I take the Advanced Research brand and it really helps keep my moods stable.
There is one scientific study published about a person overdosing on lithium orotate. They took 18 pills and it caused them to have nausea and vomiting but their blood lithoum level was only 0.4.
The reason I started taking the lithium orotate was actually my desire to treat myself. It is a risk I take, and not one I advise. But it turned out to a be an affordable solution for me, and an added benefit is no side effect of tremor. I took lithium carbonate for awhile, and after about a year, I developed a tremor from it.
I really do like how lithium makes me feel (the mood effects were similar for both lithium carbonate and lithium orotate) because it’s like it just makes me feel normal. When I’m not having to deal with the huge changes in my emotions, then I have more energy to just be myself. I know lithium doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s so good for me that I wish I had found it sooner.
If you want to read anecdotal stories of the lithium orotate, you can read reviews of it here:
http://www.iherb.com/Nutrient-Carriers-Incorporated-Advanced-Research-Lithium-Orotate-200-Tablets/6766?at=0
You can read all of the studies availabe (all 7 of them!) by going to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez and searching for “lithium orotate”
I hope this helps!
HB