title: Clinical implications of research on the mechanism of action of lithium.
abstract: Lithium is a unique drug in its clinical profile in psychiatry. Lithium has numerous biochemical effects, but none has yet been proven to be its mode of therapeutic action. Inhibition of noradrenaline-sensitive adenylate cyclase is reviewed as the only biochemical effect of lithium shown to occur in both animals and man at therapeutic lithium concentrations. A tetracycline antibiotic, demeclocycline, also blocks noradrenaline-sensitive adenylate cyclase. A clinical trial of demeclocycline in mania would provide a test of the adenylate cyclase theory of lithium action.
mesh_terms: D000067956:Adenylyl Cyclase Inhibitors; D000818:Animals; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology; D000242:Cyclic AMP / Q000097:blood; D003707:Demeclocycline / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003913:Dextroamphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D008094:Lithium / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D000067956:Adenylyl Cyclase Inhibitors; D003707:Demeclocycline; D008094:Lithium; D000242:Cyclic AMP; D003913:Dextroamphetamine; D009638:Norepinephrine; D004837:Epinephrine