Prospective studies on a lithium cohort

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Abstract
Since 1979, patients started on long‐term lithium treatment at the Psychiatric Hospital in Risskov have been followed systematically with recording of clinical and laboratory variables before the start of treatment, after 6 and 12 months of treatment, and thereafter at yearly intervals. By June 1987, 480 examinations had been carried out before the start of lithium treatment, 236 after treatment for 6 months, and decreasing numbers up to 7 years of lithium treatment. The total lithium exposure time was 548 years. The mean lithium dose was 23.2 mmol/d and the mean serum lithium concentration 0.68 mmol/1. These values are about 30% lower than the corresponding values in patients given lithium treatment prior to 1979. About one half of the patients who had gone through the pre‐lithium examinations did not reach the 6‐month examination. This was because they did not start lithium, or because they stopped it again before 6 months of treatment or before they had reached that point. Thereafter there was a drop‐out rate of about 25% per year during the first 2 years of lithium treatment and about 10% per year after 4–5 years of treatment. More men than women left the cohort.