# Lithium Orotate



## willie (Aug 27, 2000)

Just curious to know if anyone here has used or had any experience with any of the brands of OTC Lithium Orotate? Thanks...willie


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## Tiss (Aug 22, 2000)

Are you talking about lithium for bipolar disorder/mood stabilizer? If so, it is by script only.


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## willie (Aug 27, 2000)

No, different compound. Lithium carbonate is by Rx only....Lithium Orotate is OTC but has been shown to be quite effective as a mood stabilizer and antidepressant. willie


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## Tiss (Aug 22, 2000)

Interesting. I've never heard of it but I'd like to know more about it.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

From what I can find it is an OTC dietary supplement and there isn't a whole lot of clinical data on it.It did look like from one rodent study that it isn't removed from the body as well as the prescription lithium carbonate so you might want to consider having levels checked for to make sure you aren't taking too much, especially if you have kidney issues to start with.There is one human study I found in alcoholics (who were also often given other things and no controls so hard to judge) .pubmed link


> quote: Lithium orotate therapy was safe and the adverse side effects noted were minor, i.e., eight patients developed muscle weakness, loss of appetite or mild apathy. For these patients, the symptoms subsided when the daily dose was given 4 to 5 times weekly.


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## willie (Aug 27, 2000)

True enough..Ive read that as well. I also ran across an interesting study somewhere that tended to lessen those findings...that is, no real threat to the kidneys when taken in normal doses. The rodent tests used toxic doses as I recall. Ill read some more on it...willie


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I was reading more from the pharmacokinetics training I've had and worry that if you normally can't clear a dose as fast it is easier to build up the levels over time if you take too much of it. This can increase side effect issues for some people even at sub-toxic doses. Depending on what the effective dose and the toxic dose actually are this can be more or less of a toxic issue, but may be more of a tolerance issue. For some drugs the margin of error is pretty small toxicity-wise, I don't know what the margins are for this medication. Given it is eliminated from the body slowly I would tend to be in the try less first.The alcoholic study gives a fair idea of a dose that is OK, although even at that dose some people had to take a day or two off a week to tolerate it. Short drug holidays can let you clear enough of a slowly excreted drug so you can tolerate it better. With a fast clearing drug you usually don't have those sorts of dosing issues as it is so close to gone when you take another dose it doesn't matter much if you take them day in and day out.K.


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## willie (Aug 27, 2000)

Interesting...thanks Kathleen.willie


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