Lithium: at what level did your mood stabilise?

[Nico]

My current lithium level is 0.2. It's rising very, very slowly - unusually slowly, according to my GP. How long did it take you to get your mood stable on lithium? At what level did it stabilise?

[aura]

0.7 (it's now a little higher, I think)

It took about two weeks for my mood to stabilize once I was at that level. 

[melissaw72]

Mine was 0.8 - 1.0.  Anything in that range.  I don't remember how long it took to get there, but I don't remember it taking a long time.

[Rabbit37]

.8 . I am very sensitive to meds, oddly enough I am at that level with just 600mg lithium. And yes, I drink loads of water daily. Anyway, that's when the depression finally lifted. It's been a godsend.

[rowan77]

My mood stabilised at 0.8 mmol/L. Once my blood level is over that I am usually fine but sometimes I need a higher blood level of 1.0 mmol/L

[crtclms]

I started taking lithium as an add on to Lamictal. My mood had really stabilized on Lamictal, but I was still depressed. The lithium really helped with the depression. I do need an atypical anti-psychotic (we abbreviate that to AAP, or "an atypical") as the final piece of my puzzle, but the lithium has helped a lot.

My mood stabilized at .6. I take 600mg, which is on the low side. Sometimes I read at .7, but my pdoc said that probably was more to do with time of day and water intake, and .6-.7 was an okay fluctuation.

I drink a ton of water, as well.

[Nico]

I started taking lithium as an add on to Lamictal. My mood had really stabilized on Lamictal, but I was still depressed. The lithium really helped with the depression. I do need an atypical anti-psychotic (we abbreviate that to AAP, or "an atypical") as the final piece of my puzzle, but the lithium has helped a lot.

My mood stabilized at .6. I take 600mg, which is on the low side. Sometimes I read at .7, but my pdoc said that probably was more to do with time of day and water intake, and .6-.7 was an okay fluctuation.

I drink a ton of water, as well.

I take an atypical (aripiprazole, depot) as well. My problem when I was on lamotrigine was hypo/mania; that's what the Li is targeting. It improved things at first, but I think that that must have been a placebo effect, as I was definitely subtherapeutic on it. I think I'm segueing into a mixed episode at the moment - a very lethargic mania, if that makes sense. 

[Flash]

I stabilized a week after hitting 0.7. I was taking 1200mg and it took about a month to get there. I felt really good for about a month and a half, and then a crippling depression hit that it was no match for. 

[Nico]

Many thanks to you all. I have the feeling that this will be a very long journey.

[saintalto]

I'm not sure what level I stabilised at but I know my doctor is happy with a dosage 1200 mg. I get regular blood tests, of course, and they must show me at a therapeutic level. I don't think I'll be on lithium much longer, though.

[rachael]

I started with 400mg, which got me to 0.3 or so and already had some effect, I reached 0.6 at 600mg after two weeks, I needed to go up in dose a few months later because 600mg got me just below therapeutic and am now at 800. It took a while to settle, but I could feel the effect very quickly (1-2 weeks).

[DSMv]

I'm normally in the 0.8 mmol/L neighbourhood, but have been just over 1.0 mmol/L before. It takes 1500mg of lithium carbonate to get me there. 

From what I remember, it took about a week to really see effect and then that effect was very noticeable: dealt with the majority of my suicidal ideation, levelled me out (to the extent I was scared I'd lost my personality), and stopped the worst-of-the-worst of depression.