Lithium treatment in affective disorders: The significance of strongly elevated erythrocyte choline levels.

ABSTRACT

In manic-depressive patients treated with lithium salts the transport of choline over the erythrocyte membrane is strongly inhibited, resulting in dramatically increased erythrocyte choline levels (for review see ref. 1). Whether or not there is a relationship between this effect and treatment response is not clear. Data on this issue are scarce possibly because the measurement of treatment response in lithium prophylaxis is very difficult and time consuming. Also the effect on erythrocyte choline is specific for lithium and not for manic-depressive illness. We will address here the question of a possible relation between erythrocyte choline and clinical effects of lithium.