@article{ref1,
title="Lower suicide risk with long-term lithium treatment in major affective illness: a meta-analysis",
journal="Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica",
year="2001",
author="Tondo, L. and Hennen, J. and Baldessarini, R. J.",
volume="104",
number="3",
pages="163-172",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: To compare suicide rates with vs. without long-term lithium treatment in major affective disorders. METHOD: Broad searching yielded 22 studies providing suicide rates during lithium maintenance; 13 also provide rates without such treatment. Study quality was scored, between-study variance tested, and suicide rates on vs. off lithium examined by meta-analyses using random-effects regression methods to model risk ratios. RESULTS: Among 5647 patients (33 473 patient-years of risk) in 22 studies, suicide was 82% less frequent during lithium-treatment (0.159 vs. 0.875 deaths/100 patient-years). The computed risk-ratio in studies with rates on/off lithium was 8.85 (95% CI, 4.12-19.1; P<0.0001). Higher rates off-lithium were not accounted for by treatment-discontinuation. CONCLUSION: Suicide risk was consistently lower during long-term treatment of major affective illnesses with lithium in all studies in the meta-analysis, including the few involving treatment-randomization.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0001-690X",
doi="10.1034/j.1600-0447.2001.00464.x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0447.2001.00464.x"
}