Bipolar Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Bipolar, including details on bipolar disorder, symptoms, treatment, depression, medication.

Lithium and bipolar mood disorder: the inositol-depletion hypothesis revisited.

Harwood AJ

MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, Department of Biology, University College London, London, UK. a.harwood@ucl.ac.uk

Inositol, a simple six-carbon sugar, forms the basis of a number of important intracellular signaling molecules. Over the last 35 years, a series of biochemical and cell biological experiments have shown that lithium (Li(+)) reduces the cellular concentration of myo-inositol and as a consequence attenuates signaling within the cell. Based on these observations, inositol-depletion was proposed as a therapeutic mechanism in the treatment of bipolar mood disorder. Recent results have added significant new dimensions to the original hypothesis. However, despite a number of clinical studies, this hypothesis still remains to be either proven or refuted. In this review of our current knowledge, I will consider where the inositol-depletion hypothesis stands today and how it may be further investigated in the future.

Published 24 December 2004 in Mol Psychiatry, 10(1): 117-26.
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