Eskalith Side Effects

What is Eskalith?

Eskalith (or the more commonly known Lithium) is used to treat mania associated with bipolar disorder. People experiencing bipolar disoder have mood swings that go from excessive excitement (mania) to severe depression. Symptoms of mania include hyperactivity, rushed speech, reduced need for sleep, aggression, anger and poor judgement. Lithium helps to lessen or prevent these symptoms. When ingested, lithium interacts with neurotransmitters and receptors in the brain, decreasing norepinephrine and inreasing serotonin synthesis.

Carl Lange and William Alexander Hammond used lithium in the 1870's to treat mania. By the turn of the century, lithium use as a mania supressant had been somewhat forgotten. It was rediscovered by an John Cade in 1949, interestingly enough while injecting rodents with the urine extracts from schizophrenic patients. Cade needed a soluble urate as a control, and decided to use lithium urate. Upon injecting the rodents with the mixture, he noticed they were immediately tranquilized. He proposed using lithium salts as tranquilizers, and soon was able to control mania in chronic patients.

Lithium is often used in conjunction with other antipsychotic drugs and can take up to a month to have an effect. It is also used, in some cases, as an augmenting agent to increase the benefits of standard unipolar depression medications. Lithium was slow to be adopted because of the dangers of overdose, but much research has been done and lithium (Eskalith) was approved by the FDA in 1970.

Potential for Abuse?

No information available.

Get emergency help immediately if you show any signs of being allergic to Eskalith, such as hives, swelling of the face, tongue, lips or throat or difficulty breathing.

Stop taking Eskalith and contact your doctor if you experience any of these serious side effects:

early signs of lithium toxicity, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, muscle weakness, tremors, lack of coordination, blurred vision or ringing in your ears.
fever with muscle stiffness, sweating, fast or uneven heartbeats
hallucinatons, seizure, blackouts
feeling light headed, fainting, or slow heart rate
cold feeling, pain or discoloration in your fingers or toes
restless muscle movements in your eyes, tongue, jaw or neck
weakness, fever, confusion, eye pain and vision problems

Other serious Eskalith side effects:

mild tremor of the hands
weakness, lack of coordination
mild nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, stomach pain or upset
thinning or drying of your hair
itchy skin

This is not a complete list of Eskalith side effects. Consult your doctor for a full list.

Interesting Eskalith Tidbits

Here are some interesting tidbits on Eskalith:

Exactly how lithium works as a mood stabilizing agent is currently unknown.
Lithium is known to cause weight gain, acne with scarring, thinning of the hair and an obvious tremor that is usually in the hands, but can be in the lips and tongue.
There are several songs about lithium, including "Lithium Sunset" by Sting, "Lithium" by Nirvana, "Tea and Thorazine" by Andrew Bird, and "Lithium" by Evanescence are a few examples.
Many soft drinks contained lithium salts or lithia water until 1948, when they were forced to remove them.
Tony Soprano (The Sopranos on HBO) is prescribed Prozac and lithium for anxiety attacks.
The movie "Pi" by Darren Aronofsky shows the main character to relieve his mental illness.
In the movie Garden State, Zach Braff's character stops taking his lithium and starts to experience life a little bit differently.