1. Saliva testing as a means to monitor therapeutic lithium levels in patients with psychiatric disorders: Identification of clinical and environmental covariates, and their incorporation into a prediction model
- Author
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Nisha Warikoo, Georgia M. Parkin, Michael McCarthy, Douglas A. Granger, Soe H. Thein, Hillary L. Piccerillo, and Elizabeth A. Thomas
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Saliva ,Bipolar Disorder ,Lithium (medication) ,Lithium ,Saliva testing ,Diabetes mellitus ,Covariate ,Medicine ,Humans ,In patient ,Bipolar disorder ,Psychiatry ,Biological Psychiatry ,Monitoring, Physiologic ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,business.industry ,Mental Disorders ,medicine.disease ,Identification (information) ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Mood disorders ,Therapeutic drug monitoring ,Cohort ,business ,medicine.drug - Abstract
The narrow therapeutic window of lithium medications necessitates frequent serum monitoring, which can be expensive and inconvenient for the patient. The use of saliva as a biofluid may have advantages over blood, as it is non-invasive, easier to collect, requires less processing, and can be collected without the need for trained personnel. This study investigated the utility of saliva as a longitudinal means of monitoring lithium levels. We measured lithium levels using Inductively-Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) in n=171 saliva samples collected via the passive drool method, from a multi-center cohort consisting of n=75 patients with bipolar disorder or other psychiatric conditions. We found that saliva and serum levels of lithium were highly correlated (unadjusted Spearman r=0.74, ppp Data availability statement Anonymized summary data will be shared by reasonable formal request from qualified researchers, subject to a data sharing agreement and in compliance with the requirements of the funding bodies and institutions.
- Published
- 2021