If you're like us, at some point in your psychiatry training you learned that lithium treatment decreases the incidence of suicide in people with bipolar disorder, but you might also have been taught that this assertion has been disproven. In the second episode on of the Yeah No Journal Club, we take a hard look at a recent attempt to answer the question of whether or not lithium decreases suicide. Along the way, we dig in to the concept of confounding by indication and the ways in which confounding by indication plagues popular press reports about effects of psychiatric medications. (Adriane dela Cruz, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center and with the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute who focuses on treating patients with drug and alcohol addictions. The opinions expressed are her own and do not reflect those of UT Southwestern, the O’Donnell Brain Institute, the UT System, or the state.)
Suicidal Behavior During Lithium and Valproate Treatment
Use the link above to get to the paper we discuss in this episode or use the following citation to find it.
Song, J et al. Suicidal Behavior During Lithium and Valproate Treatment: A Within-Individual 8-Year Prospective Study of 50,000 Patients with Bipolar Disorder. Am J Psychiatry 2017; 174:795-802.