Posted on 10/25/2016 2:04:53 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The second century C.E. Greek physician and philosopher Galen advised patients suffering from disorders of the spirit to bathe in and drink hot spring water. Modern day brain scientists have posited that Galen’s prescription delivered more than a placebo effect. Lithium has for decades been recognized as an effective mood stabilizer in bipolar disease, and lithium salts may have been present in the springs Galen knew.
Yet exactly how lithium soothes the mind has been less than clear. Now, a team led by Ben Cheyette, a neuroscientist at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF), has linked its success to influence over dendritic spines, tiny projections where excitatory neurons form connections, or synapses, with other nerve cells. Lithium treatment restored healthy numbers of dendritic spines in mice engineered to carry a genetic mutation that is more common in people with autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder than in unaffected people, they report today in Molecular Psychiatry. The lithium also reversed symptoms in these mutant mice—lack of interest in social interactions, decreased motivation, and increased anxiety—that mimic those in the human diseases.
“They showed there’s a correlation between the ability of lithium to reverse not only the behavioral abnormalities in the mice, but also the [dendritic] spine abnormalities,” says Scott Soderling, a neuroscientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who studies how dysfunctions in signaling at brain synapses lead to psychiatric disorders. Soderling adds that the work also sheds light on the roots of these diseases. “It gives further credence to this idea that these spine abnormalities are functionally linked to the behavioral disorders.”
Over the past 2 decades, neuroscientists have built a body of evidence that links not only bipolar disease, but other psychiatric disorders including autism and schizophrenia to abnormal brain development. In particular, they have found abnormalities in the numbers of synapses and in the shape of neurons at the points where they form synapses. Their studies have often implicated abnormal signaling in a brain pathway called Wnt, which is involved both in early brain development and later, more complex, refining of brain connections. The role of Wnt could help explain why lithium is effective: It blocks an enzyme called GSK-3 β, which is an inhibitor on the Wnt pathway. By boosting Wnt signaling, lithium could produce a therapeutic effect in psychiatric diseases in which the Wnt pathway is underpowered.
To find out how that biochemical effect influences the brain, Cheyette and a team of colleagues at UCSF and other institutions worked on several parallel tracks. They compared the genomes of 9554 people with bipolar disease, autism, or schizophrenia with those of 11,361 unaffected individuals, looking for variations in the genetic sequence of one form of DIXDCI, another key gene on the Wnt pathway. The changes were rare in both groups, but they were about 80% more common—0.9% versus 0.5%—in people with the disorders compared with unaffected people, suggesting that the mutations elevate the risk of developing the disorders.
The researchers also created mice with a mutated version of DIXDCI. They subjected the rodents to tests gauging their willingness to interact with other mice, to explore a new environment, and to swim—as opposed to passively float—when placed in water. The mutant mice showed decreased sociability, increased anxiety, and lack of motivation compared with controls—all symptoms with analogs in human psychiatric disease. The scientists imaged the rodents’ living brains and examined their neurons in lab dishes. All the tests showed decreased numbers of dendritic spines. At the same time, biochemical tests showed that Wnt signaling was impaired in the mutant mice.
They then treated the mutant mice with lithium. Although the researchers acknowledge that rodents are an imperfect proxy for human mood disorders, they did observe that the animals’ symptoms markedly improved; studies of their brains also revealed normal numbers of spines. “That’s the key finding,” Cheyette says. “It suggests that lithium could have its well-known therapeutic effect on patients with bipolar disorder by changing the stability of spines in the brain.”
7 up
I’ve taken Lithium when I was younger. And look at me now!! :)
GMTA-you beat me to it!
I can’t remember off hand which but in one of his letters Paul contrasts two cities and one had increased Lithium in the water...
Hillary has a lithium tank strapped to her backside.
Nineveh and Tyre?
Looks like you got embroiled in an internet flamewar...
There is hope for Liberals yet!
Nothing but jokes on here. I find this very interesting. Thanks for posting. The jokesters (though I do like jokes) might be from some of the few families without any mental illness or autism. Good for them.
I know that very low dose lithium is good for the first couple weeks of getting over an addiction. It helps reduce the craving for the drug/alcohol.
It’s a salt in the earth. It’s good to learn this stuff. Who knows whom it can help?
dint do him much good...
Schizophrenia beats being alone.
ROFL!!!!!
Seriously, it’s a heartbreaking mental illness.
They put me on it after a serious TBI when I was having mood swings. Strong stuff.
I still see things that aren’t there though.
Just the other day my hopes, dreams and desires walked right past me but they’ve been gone for decades :)
There’s a new event at the Paralympics: Bipolar boxing.
Depending on your mood, you could kick your own butt.
(You know I’m just kidding. It’s called Skizo-Boxing, a battle royale: One man enter, several men leave.)
I’ve/we’ve gotta behave.
I think one of my personalities irritated a Mod on the `pistol-whipping annoying Islamic clowns’ thread.
rofl!! Speaking as an ex boxer, I find that hysterical.
This is an aside, but on the way home from vacation, we took the scenic route and ran into this little town in the middle of nowhere called French Lick (Indiana) and it was right next door to another little place called West Baden Springs Hotel. It turns out the place used to be a spa/resort destination for the ultra rich back in the mid 1800’s. It was filled with springs that were high in lithium. The EPA came in in the 1970s and shut the place down, well I mean they closed all of the springs. It’s a gorgeous place that has been restored to its former glory. At any rate, it was a place where the rich and famous of the time used to go to rejuvenate themselves.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.