@article{ref1,
title="Lithium treatment and the risk of suicide in affective disorders",
journal="European Psychiatric Review",
year="2011",
author="Rihmer, Z.",
volume="4",
number="1",
pages="48-51",
abstract="Despite suicidal behaviour being a very complex, multicausal phenomenon, untreated major affective (bipolar and unipolar) disorders are the most powerful predictors for it. As suicidal behaviour in people with mood disorders is a state-dependent phenomenon, long-term management is fundamental for suicide prevention. Naturalistic, retrospective and prospective follow-up studies, as well as randomised controlled trials, consistently show that long-term lithium treatment reduces the risk of completed and attempted suicide by approximately 80%, both in people with bipolar disorder and unipolar depression. The marked anti-suicidal potential of lithium seems to be more than the simple reflection of its phase-prophylactic effect, as a significant reduction in the number of suicide attempts was found not only in the excellent responders, but also in moderate responders and in non-responders. Current studies also show that the combination of lithium treatment with psychosocial interventions further improves the results. © Touch Briefings 2011.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1758-1362",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}