The Lithium Group

Extraction. Lithium occurs in the form of several minerals and in brines and brine deposits. A brine is water with sizable concentrations of halide salts. 

The first equation indicates an increase in [OH ] and thus a decrease in [H+], whereas the second equation indicates a decrease in [H ] and thus an increase in [OH ]. Hence they are signifying essentially the same thing. 

The first equation can be obtained by addition of the second equation to this equation 

Name Formula State Color Solubility AG° (kJ/mole) 

Li or a Li compound in the flame gives a bright crimson color due to its emission of670.8 nm photons produced by the short-lived species LiOH. This is the property that allows for the spectrophotometric determination of Li by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) down to 20 ppb. Inductively-coupled plasma emission spectroscopy (ICPAES), inductively-coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICPMS), and ion chromatography (IC) improve this limit to about 0.1 ppb. A spot test for detection of Li down to 2 ppm is provided by basic KIO4 plus FeCl3. 

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Finally, only the lithium group had a significantly higher dropout rate due to adverse effects in comparison with those in the placebo group. 

Total serum calcium and iPTH concentrations were measured in 15 patients taking long-term lithium and 10 lithium-naive patients both were significantly higher in the lithium group (657). While the number of lithium... 

The characteristic of the halides of the elements of the lithium group is that they are all soluble white salts, crystallising in cubes. In dilute solution they are all ionised, and even in strong solution a large percentage of ions are present. Hence they all react as metal ions and as halogen ions. Thus, for instance, with silver nitrate, which is the usual test for ionic chlorine, the following reaction takes... 

In one study, there was a lower risk of cancer in both 609 lithium patients and 2396 psychiatric controls compared with the general population, and in the lithium group, there was a nonsignificant trend toward an even lower risk of nonepithelial tumors (51). 

Electroneurographic studies in 34 lithium maintenance patients and controls (both healthy subjects and mood-disorder patients never on lithium) showed statistically significant reductions in sensory and motor conduction in the lithium group (164). None of the decrements was severe enough to be abnormal, and whether these findings have clinical implications is unknown. 

In a 3-week, double-blind study of the cognitive effects of lithium (serum concentration about 0.8 mmol/1 n = 15) versus placebo (n = 15) in healthy subjects, lithium did not impair implicit recall, ability to process two tasks concurrently and simultaneously, short-term memory, or selective attention, but caused impaired learning during repeated administration of memory tests (226). Since neuropsychological testing could not distinguish lithium treatment from pre- and post-treatment in the lithium group, any lithium effects must be considered subtle at best. 

When 50 bipolar lithium patients were compared with 30 healthy controls, platelet counts were similar, but the lithium group had higher concentrations of plasma beta-thromboglobulin and platelet factor 4, suggesting lithium-induced platelet activation (338). 

Psoriasis can occur or worsen during lithium treatment (411). Before psoriasis can be treated effectively, lithium may have to be withdrawn. In a comparison of 51 patients taking lithium with 57 patients taking other psychotropic drugs, there were secondary skin reactions in 45% of the former and 25% of the latter while acne (33 versus 9%) and psoriasis (6 versus 0%) were more common in the lithium group, the only statistically significant association was acne in males (412). 

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