LITHIUM CARBONATE Reviews (LITHIUM CARBONATE)Average Rating: 3.3 (326 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare LITHIUM CARBONATE with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by Date added. Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) |
More on LITHIUM CARBONATE: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR LITHIUM CARBONA | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 1 | bipolar, OCD, PTSD, cluster HA | worsening of OCD and depression, hair loss, hallucinating spiders, weight loss, paranoia, terrible nightmares, migraines, lethargy, nausea | I started taking this med for my depression. I have been depressed since the third grade after a trauma. I can't remember a time since then when I have been happy. I started the summer I turned 18. It seemed to help for a few months-with few side effects-until another trauma spiraled me into a worsened depression and I began self-medicating. My grades dropped significantly and I stopped taking the lithium. I started taking it again a month or so later when I began to experience cluster headaches, as it is a preventative med. This time I began to have side effects. Awful side effects. I continued for 6 months hoping for relief from sadness, pain, flashbacks, obsessions, etc. But it just wasn't worth it. The side effects were too terrible to handle and it made me feel worse than the depression. The spiders were the deal breaker. Oy. | F | 19 | 9 months 600 mg 1X day | 3/25/2010 | 2 | depression | confusion, constant hunger, lethargy, slow reflexes, bloating, weight gain, increased thirst, worst depression, paranoia, loss of memory | Please consider all risks before taking this medication-if you deal with the public, you may need to take some time off. I would not recommend this medication. It made me feel worse than I felt before. I am currently on the second day of not taking it-I feel nauseated, weak and confused but hope it will pass soon. | F | 39 | 3 weeks 450 1X day | 2/23/2010 | 4 | Bipolar Disorder | Nausea, vomiting, weight gain (considerate weight gain), frequent urination, excessive thirst (I believe this is worsening the weight gain for I seem to consume too mmuch coldrink), general weakness, distractiveness | I struggled to accept the fact that I had to take medication everyday, still do sometimes but I take it now, before lithium I was taking carbamazepine, and I insisted that I wanted lithium believeing it would make well soon. It made me stable, though I am strugling with the ide effects, it is a small price to pay for being well. My big question is what can I take to make the thirst go away and keep hydrated? | F | 33 | 1 years 1000mg 1X day | 2/16/2010 | 5 | Constipation | The only med that got me rid of constipation. I had no bowel movement for four months. Occasionally loose stools but well worth a bowel that forgot how to move completely. I take only 300 mg at night. I now have 2-4 movements a day and am very happy. | M | 18 | 3 months 300 mg 1X day | 2/15/2010 | 4 | Bipolar Disorder Type II | Weight gain, stomach cramps at first | I have been on Lamictal and got a rash, I was on Abilify and it was too stimulating, I was on Resperidol and it was too sedating. I really like the Lithium alot. After years of being misdiagnosed, I finally feel like myself again. The only drawback is the weight gain, I have gained 20 pounds. But I am going to talk to my doctor about it at our next visit. I just wish we would have found Lithium earlier! | F | 27 | 90 days | 1/1/2010 | 5 | mis-diagnosis of being bi-polar | very slight tremors before taking morning dose | unbelievable! even my eyesite has returned to normal after wearing contact lenses for 25 years. My thinking has never been so clear and I know if I decided to go back to university, I would complete a course in no time! I don't consider the lack of emotions (negative) a bad thing - as a matter of fact, it's great to help people solve their problems and in relationships. I wake up smiling in the morning and I laugh all day! I am 66 and look 50. Life has never been better! | F | 66 | 200 days | 12/1/2009 | 3 | Type II Bipolar Disorder/Depression | Constant hunger, increased thirst, increased urination, minor tremor, irritability. Muscle discomfort for the first few days of use, then subsided. | The lithium helped me very quickly and to a great degree for the first 9-10 days, and definitely outweighed my side effects. However, its effect began to wane, and my need to urinate and eat were too constant and interfered with my life. My depression returned and I discontinued use. | M | 18 | 20 days | 11/16/2009 | 3 | Protein digestion/hyperthyroid | Dry mouth; sleepiness | I take this on and off mostly at night. It helps with protein digestion and helps me retain water, which I need. The sodium retention is also good. It turns down the hyperthyroid, which is borderline, and allows me to gain some weight. I am at 116 now at 5'6". Would like to be about 130 pounds. When I gain enough weight or gain too much, I will take some sublingual B-12 dots to turn up the thyroid a bit. Hopefully I will be at the ideal weight and slow down my thyroid a bit. | F | 45 | 2 days | 11/14/2009 | 2 | schizo-affective disorder | weight gain (probably because it messed with the salt/water/potassium ratio) once i stopped it, the weight would go away slowly. makes me hungry, too. and its lowering my tsh, reducing my thyroid function. tired. | when i first started taking it, it was great. it helped with depression and irratibility...but that wore off after i noticed that i was gaining weight, i was feeling tired and gaining weight. | F | 24 | 6 months | 11/12/2009 | 3 | bipolar | Hypothyroidism. Weight gain. Initial nausea. Saliva in the mouth. | I gained weight from the hypothyroidism. When I told my doctor there was something that needed to be checked up on, he did not believe me. There was a goiter in my neck. I went to see a different doctor and she referred me to an endocrinologist. GET A SECOND OPINION!!! If you think something needs to be checked up on... have it looked at by a different doctor. | F | 33 | 14 years | 11/4/2009 | 5 | Bipolar I mania | None after six months. | I feel normal (like I did before my manic episode with psychosis at age 35) on Lithium carbonate. I also take Effexor. No symptoms when Lithium titrated to .6-.7 mmol/L. | M | 53 | 18 years | 10/28/2009 | 5 | Bi Polar 1-Tramatic Brain Injury | thirst, weight gain (can be altered with exercise), anxious and crazy if you take to much! | I have been taking Lithium for 3 years now, along with Lamictal and Clonazepam. At first, it took me a long time to adjust, yet when I finally did I find it to be very helpful. I have had no side affects except when I took too much by accident. I shook, was not able to stand and could not speak with any sense. I altered this by burning toast and, putting peanut butter on it, eating it and sleeping. All my symptoms went away! I am scared to come off of it as I am or sure if Lithium or the Lamictal I take is the drug that is actually the one that is helping me. I have to have blood test regularly and I do not have a thyroid (take synthroid for that) so I can not speak of the problems people have reported regarding how it affects their thyroid. I just know I have not had any problems. I take 900 mgs per day and have yet to experience any problems except when I took too much by accident. I have nothing bad to say about the drug. I do feel Lamictal is a miracle drug. | F | 51 | | 10/24/2009 | 5 | BIPOLAR | Tremors in my hands, excessive leg shaking. Urination in the beginning. Head aches are just starting, and mild taste of bleach in my food and drinks, and smell of bleach in certain foods. | Before I started taking lit.. I felt like a time bomb ready to ignite. I feel really well on this medication, but my blood work came back that it is affecting my thyroid. I don't have many complaints on this medication, Just a little worried about the long term affects that it may have on my body. I would rather stay on this medicine than to keep living this angry life that i have been caring on with my children for yrs.. | F | 29 | 1 months | 10/23/2009 | 5 | Bipolar Ultridian Cycle | 1800mg/day. mild facial twitching, occasional incontinance (urine), slightly dizzy, always thirsty. Also taking: Clonazepam .5mg/6 per day, Ambien 10mg/night, Gabapentin 900mg/day | Besides the mild side effects, I think Lithium is the BEST! I have been working my way through the buffet of pills for about 5 years now. I've been on Equatro, Welbutrin, Depakote, Lamictle (and a few more that I am forgetting). So far, Lithium seems to help keep me stable. I am out of work on Short Term Disability because I was starting to have episodes in the office. It's been 3 months now. I'm not sure I will ever be ready for an office environment again. For now, I will keep taking the Lithium and try to remember what "I" am like without the bipolar in the way. | M | 31 | 2 months | 8/22/2009 | 2 | Bipolar | Extreme thirst and frequent urination, lack of energy or desire to do ANYTHING, extreme anger and irritability all the time, hypothyroidism, complete loss of libido | At first the medicine seemed to help stabilize my moods, especially rapid-cycling, but over time it stopped. I became EXTREMELY angry and irritable ALL the time, enraged anytime anything happened, to the point I was yelling at my husband all the time over absolutely nothing and was incredibly tense. The longer I've been on it, the less I've wanted to get up and do anything, which has been exacerbated by the thyroid disorder. I used to be productive and lively and now I sit all day because I don't feel like getting up or going out. The longer I've been on lithium the less libido I have had. I've gained weight (about 35 pounds) from the medication, but probably indirectly from having no motivation to move about. I'm getting myself off this medicine. I'd rather be manic or depressed than angry all the time. At least I can be happy in between. | F | 19 | 5 years | 8/21/2009 | 5 | Bipolar/Mania | dry mouth, increased thirst, bit of weight gain, nausea initially | This drug has really helped - though I do have the breakthrough manic symptoms from time to time, it has really evened things out and made me not feel so irritable and off the wall. It has worked wonderfully, and its definitely worth a try! | M | 24 | 1 years | 7/27/2009 | 5 | Bipolar - Cyclothymia | mild tremors, mild weight gain (gained about 10 lbs - you stop gaining weight after 1 month of the drug or so), thirsty | Lithium is the best drug for bipolar, bar-none. It address the mania and depression. When I take Lithium I feel like myself. if you get a lot of side effects, lower the dose. your lithium levels should be checked by a lab to keep you in range. if you have a good doctor, they should prescribe thyroid and kidney tests to be done by a lab routinely. If you do this, then you should be able to catch problems early. this drug MAKES THE DIFFERENCE for me.... | F | 29 | 1 years | 7/20/2009 | 3 | BiPolar 1 | Thirst, head aches, stomach aches. | I haven't had all the bad side effects that I've heard so much about. I do know that my speech has slowed down to a normal speed, I do still have mood swings, but not nearly as bad as before. I am also taking prozac. | F | 23 | 14 days | 7/6/2009 | 4 | Bipolar I Mania | This is truly the ultimate in anti-manic medicines for me. Ironically, I had fewer side effects from the generic lithium carbonate than from the Lithobid, which made me see double. I don't take this med all the time, though. I fear the long term liver damage it may cause as well as the possibility that it can lead to hypothyroidism. My maintenance regimen therefore does not include Lithium, but it is great for a few weeeks for the recovery from mania. | When I first started taking Lithobid I had terrible, terrible shaking. It was embarrassing. My hands shook like a Parkinson's patient's. Since them I have not had that problem. Been on and off it since 2002. I would never take it for depression, but that's just me. | F | | 7/3/2009 | 3 | bipolar | heavy tremor in one hand, sometimes in head and jaw, emotional flatness, slow thinking, frequent urination, lack of motivation, memory is completely gone | I also take lamitrogine 300mg and bupropion 150mg, so some of the side effects are probably made worse by these, esp lamitrogine. I take 1200mg a day of lithium extended release. It has been pretty helpful for my mood episodes. I still have them but they're nowhere near as intense. I had a lot of trouble breaking through the depression and lithium seems to have done that, although now it's more like I just don't care much about things. Maybe that's still mild depression. With lithium I feel like I'm watching the world on tv, like I'm not really a part of it. But the worst problem is the movement disorder. It's not the fine tremor that is so common. This is a coarse tremor, very noticable. I can stop it when I want to but it comes back as soon as I'm thinking about something else. And my head nods slightly, all the time. It's bad enough that I don't go out much. So I would say Li is very effective but the side effects can be brutal. | F | 44 | 1 years | 6/20/2009 |