Prevention of the gastrotoxicity of aspirin and related drugs in rats by lithium salts and sodium thiocyanate.

Oral or parenteral administration of lithium salts considerably increased the gastric fluid volume in rats, effectively preventing the hemorrhagic effects of oral or parenteral aspirin and other nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs on the gastric mucosa in cold-stressed and fasted animals and in fasted arthritic rats. The doses of Li+ which were totally protective in normal rats, though active, were much less protective in the arthritic animals. Thiocyanate salts reduced the gastrotoxicity of these drugs only in normal (i.e., nonarthritic) rats.