Lithium: clinical study by brain electrical activity mapping. A case report.

One of the axes of research in our department is oriented on the study of the action of psychotropic drugs on the Central Nervous System by the means of the non invasive and direct techniques of cerebral imagery. First approach: EEG mapping In depressive states, the modification of nocturnal wakefulness states observed under lithium therapy begins to be well known. However, under lithium monotherapy, few diurnal studies have been performed. EEG mapping, based on a protocol and a strict methodology, could represent an interesting technique to approach the mechanisms of lithium action in psychopathological states concerned by this type of therapy. Second approach: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) We studied the manic-depressive states in man before and after chronic administration of lithium salts. This research is performed in fundamental molecular studies, in vitro, and from modification of certain parameters in protonic NMR imagery that can be observed in these pathological states. We are participating in a research program and we preliminarily present: 1. the study by protonic NMR of the in vitro interaction between the lithium ion and water which is free or bound to the total cerebral tissue of rats (acute intravenous treatment by Li+ in different doses and at different times of tissular penetration). 2. the study by lithium NMR of the in vitro kinetics of the erythrocyte's lithium penetration in man, for the plasmatic concentrations (acute intravenous dose) considered as therapeutic in manic-depressive states. These measures performed by spectroscopic NMR are coupled with a classical dosage of lithium made with a flame spectrophotometer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)