Biomaterial Database

Saliva lithium levels in children: their use in monitoring serum lithium levels and lithium side effects. 1984

R Perry, and M Campbell, and D M Grega, and L Anderson

The reliability of saliva lithium levels in monitoring serum lithium levels in children taking lithium has rarely been studied, despite the potential usefulness of such a study and despite a number of adult studies focusing on the technique. In a study of 61 aggressive school-age children diagnosed as undersocialized, aggressive conduct disorder, a subsample of 21 children received lithium. Saliva lithium levels aided in monitoring side effects, and in 15 of the 21 children simultaneous saliva and serum lithium levels were done. These were highly correlated (r = 0.83) and the saliva to serum ratio was 2.53 across subjects. The results indicate that future work with larger numbers of children should study the ratio of saliva to serum lithium levels. Adult studies have shown that there is too great a variability in saliva to serum lithium level ratios to support the use of a fixed saliva to serum lithium ratio. This may not be the case in children. Seventeen children from the lithium subsample experienced 41 lithium-related side effects. Most children suffered side effects on relatively high doses of lithium, and those few who experienced side effects on low dosage had saliva lithium levels that were proportionately high. However, it remains unclear whether saliva lithium can be used to monitor side effects.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007700	Kinetics	The rate dynamics in chemical or physical systems.
D008094	Lithium	An element in the alkali metals family. It has the atomic symbol Li, atomic number 3, and atomic weight [6.938; 6.997]. Salts of lithium are used in treating BIPOLAR DISORDER.	Lithium-7,Lithium 7
D010919	Placebos	Any dummy medication or treatment. Although placebos originally were medicinal preparations having no specific pharmacological activity against a targeted condition, the concept has been extended to include treatments or procedures, especially those administered to control groups in clinical trials in order to provide baseline measurements for the experimental protocol.	Sham Treatment
D011897	Random Allocation	A process involving chance used in therapeutic trials or other research endeavor for allocating experimental subjects, human or animal, between treatment and control groups, or among treatment groups. It may also apply to experiments on inanimate objects.	Randomization,Allocation, Random
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D002653	Child Behavior Disorders	Disturbances considered to be pathological based on age and stage appropriateness, e.g., conduct disturbances and anaclitic depression. This concept does not include psychoneuroses, psychoses, or personality disorders with fixed patterns.	Childhood Behavior Disorders,Behavior Disorder, Child,Behavior Disorder, Childhood,Child Behavior Disorder,Childhood Behavior Disorder,Disorder, Childhood Behavior
D002675	Child, Preschool	A child between the ages of 2 and 5.	Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D004311	Double-Blind Method	A method of studying a drug or procedure in which both the subjects and investigators are kept unaware of who is actually getting which specific treatment.	Double-Masked Study,Double-Blind Study,Double-Masked Method,Double Blind Method,Double Blind Study,Double Masked Method,Double Masked Study,Double-Blind Methods,Double-Blind Studies,Double-Masked Methods,Double-Masked Studies,Method, Double-Blind,Method, Double-Masked,Methods, Double-Blind,Methods, Double-Masked,Studies, Double-Blind,Studies, Double-Masked,Study, Double-Blind,Study, Double-Masked
D006220	Haloperidol	A phenyl-piperidinyl-butyrophenone that is used primarily to treat SCHIZOPHRENIA and other PSYCHOSES. It is also used in schizoaffective disorder, DELUSIONAL DISORDERS, ballism, and TOURETTE SYNDROME (a drug of choice) and occasionally as adjunctive therapy in INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY and the chorea of HUNTINGTON DISEASE. It is a potent antiemetic and is used in the treatment of intractable HICCUPS. (From AMA Drug Evaluations Annual, 1994, p279)	Haldol
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man