Real-World Clinical Practice Among Patients With Bipolar Disorder and Chronic Kidney Disease on Long-term Lithium Therapy

Lithium is considered a standard treatment for bipolar disorder, but it remains underprescribed, in part because of its association with kidney dysfunction. In this podcast, Dr. Balwinder Singh discusses an article he and his colleagues published in the January-February 2023 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology on "real-world" clinical practice involving patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). In their study, patients with BD and CKD who discontinued lithium use after CKD diagnosis had a higher risk for a relapse of their mood disorder as well as a shorter time to the first mood episode, suggesting a need for more thorough discussion before discontinuing lithium after a diagnosis of CKD.