Overview
Lithium is most relevant to this wiki as a metal used in medical therapy for mania and bipolar disorder. Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021 attaches lithium to the wiki through its narrow therapeutic index and toxicities involving neuromuscular, central nervous system, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, renal, and thyroid effects.
Status
This page is a source-map stub created during the re-ingest of Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021. Substantive lithium-specific expansion awaits a dedicated ingest.
Frequently asked questions
Why does a heavy metals wiki cover lithium at all?
Lithium is most relevant here as a metal used in medical therapy for mania and bipolar disorder. According to Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021, it is tied to the toxicology literature through its narrow therapeutic index and its range of toxic effects.
What does it mean that lithium has a “narrow therapeutic index”?
A narrow therapeutic index means the gap between a helpful dose and a toxic dose is small. Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021 identifies this narrow margin as the main reason lithium’s toxicity is a concern in the context of its use as a therapy.
What kinds of health effects are associated with lithium toxicity?
The page reports that lithium toxicities involve neuromuscular, central nervous system, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, renal, and thyroid effects, per Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021. The page does not provide dose thresholds or quantitative detail for these effects.
How complete is the information on this lithium page right now?
This is a source-map stub created during the re-ingest of Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021, and it currently rests on a single source. Substantive lithium-specific expansion is noted as awaiting a dedicated ingest, so detailed food or consumer-product exposure information is not yet covered.
Sources
- Ufelle & Barchowsky 2021 — Ufelle AC, Barchowsky A, 2021. Toxic Effects of Metals, Ch 23 in Casarett & Doull’s Essentials of Toxicology, 4th ed.
References
Works cited in this page’s text, in first-appearance order. This is not the full corpus for this page; it is only what the prose above draws on. The complete set of sources is listed under Sources below. Each title links to its source record, which carries the ingest receipt, the extracted values, and the file hash of the document it was built from.
- Toxic Effects of Metals (Chapter 23), in Casarett & Doull’s Essentials of Toxicology, Fourth EditionTextbook
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 1 source added; contamination-profile values revised; 10 sections added |