Abstract

Lithium’s first rise in psychiatry was in 1949 when John Cade tried lithium in manic patients successfully. Clinical research which conducted later on, showed the lithium’s effectivity in maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder (BD) and mania. On the other hand, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lithium for mania treatment in 1970, and for maintenance treatment against mania in 1974. Lithium still keeps its importance as the first line treatment option in acute mania, maintenance treatment, and depressive episode of BD. However, despite this wide usage area, lithium has a narrow therapeutic index and as a result of this, a lot of serious acute and chronic side effects may occur. Neurologic, endocrine, renal, dermatologic, and gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular systems may be affected in different severities. Lithium intoxication may result in neurological sequela, even in death.
In this article, a BD patient who has been treated with lithium for forty years without side effects, and who has been found to be normal in lab and monitoring examination will be reported.

Key words: bipolar disorder, treatment, lithium