Posted by Anne on May 28, 1998 at 13:17:56:
In Reply to: Lithium stories posted by JD on May 23, 1998 at 00:34:27:
Lithium seems to be working for my partner. He had chronic CH for two and a half years. He started to take lithium a few weeks ago and it seems to be working now (touch wood!). He's taking 400 mg lithium carbonate SR (Priadel) every night. Before he started it, he was getting up to 9 CH attacks in 24 hours - it was a nightmare! It took over 3 weeks of taking the lithium before there was any result, and then there was a gradual improvement over the next two weeks while the number and severity of the attacks reduced. Now he is not getting any bad attacks, just an occasional shadow cluster in the background. The lithium did make him feel pretty nauseous to begin with, though this seems to have improved now. One night after the acute attacks had stopped, he took a half dose - 200 mg rather than 400 - and the next day he had 2 or 3 attacks again. When he took the full dose again, the attacks cleared once more. Good luck with it, but don't give up with it too soon if it doesn't seem to be working quickly - give it a fair trial.