I have a bipolar diagnosis but with medication I've been symptom free for over 5 years now. For the past two years I've been taking 5mg Lithium Orotate nightly as a supplement to my main medication Lamotrigine [1]. I started taking the Lithium as a prophylactic against dementia. Research has shown that a history of bipolar disorder is associated with significantly higher dementia risk [2-3]. Low-dose lithium has shown promise as being preventative against the progression of dementia [4].
After starting the Lithium Orotate I noticed some subjective improvements in mental clarity and mood within a couple weeks. The effect is very small though and not comparable to that of my main medication. Although it's possible that I'm only experiencing the placebo effect, I suspect that the Lithium actually is helping somewhat.
The 5mg dose in most commercially available Lithium Orotate supplements is a couple orders of magnitude less than the doses typically used to treat bipolar, but I think it would still be good idea to bring it up with a doctor. Also, try to manage your expectations. It's probably not going to change your life all at once, but you may notice some small subjective benefits over the longer term, and the research on low doses of lithium being partially preventative against dementia seems pretty solid.
After starting the Lithium Orotate I noticed some subjective improvements in mental clarity and mood within a couple weeks. The effect is very small though and not comparable to that of my main medication. Although it's possible that I'm only experiencing the placebo effect, I suspect that the Lithium actually is helping somewhat.
The 5mg dose in most commercially available Lithium Orotate supplements is a couple orders of magnitude less than the doses typically used to treat bipolar, but I think it would still be good idea to bring it up with a doctor. Also, try to manage your expectations. It's probably not going to change your life all at once, but you may notice some small subjective benefits over the longer term, and the research on low doses of lithium being partially preventative against dementia seems pretty solid.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamotrigine
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5365367/
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6994228/
[4] https://journalbipolardisorders.springeropen.com/articles/10...