Short term treatment with lithium carbonate as adjunct to radioiodine treatment for long-lasting Graves' hyperthyroidism

Lithium carbonate is primarily used for the treatment of patients with bipolar affective disorders. Initial treatment of Graves' hyperthyroidism (GHT) with antithyroid drugs (ATD) has limitations at over 50% of treated patients because of significant side effects and relatively high relapses of the disease after drugs withdrawal. Till now, the influence of LiCO₃on RIT outcome was mainly studied in patients with recent onset of GHT, and results were contradicted. Meta-analysis of case-control studies showed higher rated hypothyroidism in patients with mood disorders treated with LiCO₃(121/869) than in controls (10/578). Although in a small number of patients (n=28) with long-lasting GHT, preliminary results of ours showed that ¹³¹I treatment with LiCO₃for 7 days significantly improved the efficacy of RIT versus the non-LiCO₃treated patients (P