Lithium may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD)—including ischemic heart disease—in patients with bipolar disorder, according to a
study in the
Journal of Affective Disorders.
Why It’s Relevant
CVD is one of the
leading causes of death among patients with bipolar disorder. While there is some evidence that lithium may help protect the heart at therapeutic doses, there is still a lack of robust, long-term cardiovascular safety data for lithium in the bipolar population.
By the Numbers
- Study investigators analyzed medical and pharmacy claims data from 2,945 patients (mean age of 44) who did not have CVD and received a new diagnosis of bipolar disorder between 2010 and 2017. Of these patients, 1,129 were initiated on lithium and 1,816 were not.
- Over a mean follow-up of three years, patients who took lithium had a 62% lower risk of CVD and an 80% lower risk of ischemic heart disease than those who did not. Lithium had no significant association with stroke risk.
- In subgroup analyses, the researchers found that lithium was especially effective in patients with cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia—reducing CVD risk by 73%.
The Other Side
The cardiovascular impact of factors such as socioeconomic status, body mass index, and lifestyle factors including smoking and physical activity cannot be entirely ruled out because these variables were not in the database.
Takeaway Message
“These results suggest that the presence of cardiovascular risk should not necessarily preclude lithium therapy,” the researchers wrote. “Instead, lithium may serve as a dual-benefit agent that promotes both affective stability and somatic longevity.”
Related Information
Source
Ni Xu, et al. Association of lithium treatment with incident cardiovascular disease in patients with bipolar disorder: a claims-based longitudinal cohort study. The American Journal of Psychiatry. Published online July 18, 2026. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2026.122282
(Image: Getty Images/iStock/Carl Lokko)