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Lithium in drinking water has ‘anti-suicide’ effect
Ewen Callaway, reporterIn Aldhous Huxley’s Brave New World, the government encourages its citizens to take a sorrow-erasing drug called soma. Huxley’s novel, of course, was a commentary on a society obsessed with pleasure and happiness at the expense of real experiences.
But a new study reminded me of the book and got me wondering: should government medicate its citizens for their own good?
In Japan’s Oita Prefecture, cities with higher levels of lithium in their drinking water experienced lower rates of suicide. The study, in the British Journal of Psychiatry, made me wonder if governments should add lithium to the water supply.
Lithium levels ranged between 0.7 and 59 micrograms per litre and suicide rates across Oita varied between 60 and 181 per 100,000 people.
The amount of lithium in drinking water would seem far too low to offer any clinical benefit, since people with bipolar disorder routinely take hundreds of times more lithium each day. But Ohgami’s team points to another study showing that people with bipolar disorder who don’t respond to lithium are still less likely to attempt suicide after taking the drug.
“It seems probable that the anti-suicidal effect of lithium may be unrelated to the mood-stabilising effects and that very low lithium levels may possess an anti-suicidal effect,” they write.
Furthermore, swigging lithium-tainted water for decades could offer some protection against suicide, Ohgami’s team speculates.
This isn’t the first study to link drinking water lithium with suicide prevention. A 1990 study of 27 Texas counties found a similar link, albeit with slightly dodgier statistics that could have led to a spurious association.
However, if sub-clinical levels of lithium truly cuts suicide rates - and neither study establishes this clear-cut relationship - would cities be wise to add a little lithium to their drinking water?
Don’t rule it out, writes Allan Young, director of the Institute of Mental Health a the University of British Columbia, in a commentary accompanying the report:
“A logical first step would be for the Medical Research Council (or a similar body elsewhere) to convene an expert working party to examine the available evidence and suggest further research.”
If larger epidemiological studies suggest the link between lithium and low suicide rates is real and lab research can explain the biological mechanism, real clinical trials might be worth a shot.
“Following up on these findings will not be straightforward or inexpensive, but the eventual benefits for community mental health may be considerable,” Young adds.
The debate that has raged over fluorinated drinking water promises that not everyone will accept the government adding lithium to drinking water. Most studies suggest that low levels of fluoride protect against tooth decay, with few risks. But opposition to the practice persists across both ends of the political spectrum.
If epidemiological, laboratory and clinical studies prove lithium’s safety and effectiveness at preventing suicides, expect an even fiercer debate.
