... concerns about neurological not renal lithium toxicity, including this:
"long term lithium treatment at even recommended dosages can lead to toxicity ... Lithium affects every cell in the body and cannot be expected to clear entirely over many years of taking it ... Even blood tests showing a safety level do not reflect the true danger of toxicity as the blood tests do not reflect the gradual residual accumulation in the brain."
Following up then, at long last: You said doctoers could learn from the "many good books and articles" on lithium, but my PCP passed on that, saying virtually all the literature focuses on kidney issues, not brain/neurological ones such as mine. Can you give me any citations? Also, you suggested seeing a "lithium specialist": psychopharm, nephrologist, other?
These days I am insisting that docs intensively consider switching patients who've been on lithium for decades over to another mood stabilizer. Also that they wake to the fact that the sum of lithium's toxic effects, esp. neurological, can't be identified via blood tests. Also that they recognize that lithium may cap high moods not at a "normal" level but lower than that, sustaining disabling chronic low-level depression. Your thoughts?