[BobbyB]

ALS MND Lithium Treatment
INFORMATION AND RESEARCH

http://alslithium.atspace.com/

QUICK LINKS:

Study Spreadsheet
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...jOcsItCl6frJMA

Study Graph
http://alslithium.atspace.com/graph.html


!! WARNING !!

Lithium in any form can be toxic. Lithium should not be taken without a doctor's supervision and frequent monitoring of blood levels!


Introduction

In November of 2007, researchers in Italy announced the results of a trial using Lithium Carbonate to treat 16 ALS patients, in which they claimed that progression was significantly slowed, and no patients died over the 15 month trial period. If the results are verified, they are unprecedented in ALS research. In fact, previous laboratory studies have demonstrated that lithium has numerous neuro-protective properties.

This website has been created to help spread information about lithium for treatment of ALS, and to gather data from ALS patients choosing to try or not to try lithium treatments in an attempt to verify the results of the Italian study.
http://alslithium.atspace.com/italian.html


If you are interested in Lithium as a potential therapy for ALS please participate in our study.
http://alslithium.atspace.com/own.html#participate

Update 2/4/08- The Italian Study has now been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences! You can view it HERE.

Update 2/9/08- We are now in collaboration with Patients Like Me. We encourage study participants in our study to also start a profile at their website.

Update 2/10/08- We are sad to report the passing of ALS columnist Leo Greene. A tribute to his life can be found at his newspaper's website..


http://alslithium.atspace.com/

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Lithium Dosage For Treatment of ALS

DOSAGE USED IN THE ITALIAN STUDY


Lithium carbonate was used. Start with 150 mg taken every 12 hours (300 mg/day). Goal is to obtain a blood lithium level of 0.4 to 0.6 mmol/l (or 0.4 to 0.6 mEq/l). Everyone’s body and kidneys processes lithium differently. Test lithium level 5 days after start of treatment, then test levels every week until appropriate level is obtained, then test monthly then every two months.

If a blood lithium level of 0.4 mmol/l is not reached after 2 weeks, increase dosage by taking another 150 mg pill at lunch time. If 0.4 mmol/l is still not achieved after another 2 weeks, increase to 600 mg/day. A few patients have ultimately found it necessary to increase dosage to 900 mg/day, but this should not be done unless 0.4 blood level has not been reached after at least 2 weeks at the 750 mg dosage..

Note: blood lithium levels should be measured in the morning, before taking the first lithium pill of the day.

FOR COMPARISON: DOSAGE FOR BIPOLAR DISORDER

Usually 450-1200 mg/day. During manic episodes blood level target at 0.8 to 1.2 mmol/liter, for regular maintenance 0.6 – 1.0 mmol/liter.
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Warning: Lithium Orotate and Lithium Chloride are NOT the same as Lithium Carbonate. We do not know the appropriate dosage for these Lithium salts and recommend sticking with Lithium Carbonate until the other forms are studied.
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[BillO]

Not much improvements considering the risked of taking lithium.
Bill.

[BobbyB]

time will tell, its still early yet for this study.
i hope it works.

[BillO]

I hope so too.
Bill

[BobbyB]

Lithium slows ALS progression
FromNews-Medical.net

Daily doses of lithium, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder, have been found to delay progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in an Italian study of 44 people with the disease.

No other treatment to date has shown such a dramatic effect on this paralyzing and fatal disease of adults, which affects some 30,000 Americans.

Francesco Fornai at the University of Pisa (Italy), with colleagues at the University of Novara (Italy) and the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, announced their results online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

At the end of a 15-month trial that began in October 2005, about 30 percent of the patients that took riluzole, a drug known to have modest benefit in ALS, had died, while all those receiving riluzole plus lithium had survived. The disease progressed markedly in the riluzole-only group but progressed very slowly in the riluzole-plus-lithium group.

“Although the number of study participants is small, the results are very intriguing,” said Dr. Valerie Cwik, MDA medical director and vice president of Research. “MDA has already had conversations with researchers in the United States to follow up on these results with a larger, confirmatory study.”

Sixteen trial participants were randomly selected to receive 50 milligrams a day of riluzole plus two daily doses of 150 milligrams of lithium carbonate. (If necessary, doses were adjusted up to 450 milligrams a day during the study to maintain targeted blood levels.)

The remaining 28 participants were randomly assigned to receive riluzole only.

The two groups were carefully matched with respect to the number of patients with bulbar ALS, the most rapidly progressive form, and pulmonary function.

A parallel study in mice with a genetic form of ALS suggested that lithium works by increasing autophagy, a process in which worn-out or abnormal cellular components are destroyed, and boosting the number of mitochondria, the energy-producing units of cells.

Lithium must be taken under a doctor’s supervision and with frequent monitoring of blood levels. Early signs of lithium toxicity include diarrhea, vomiting, drowsiness, weakness and lack of coordination. Later signs include giddiness, blurred vision, ringing in the ears and a large output of dilute urine.

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=34906