Randomized feasibility trial to assess tolerance and clinical effects of lithium in progressive multiple sclerosis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Disability accumulation in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) results from inflammatory and neurodegenerative mechanisms. In animal models of MS, lithium acts to reduce inflammatory demyelination, and in models of neurodegenerative diseases, lithium also slows neuronal death. Prospective studies of lithium in MS patients have not been previously undertaken.

Objective

To determine the tolerance and feasibility of using low-dose (150-300 mg/daily) lithium as a pharmaceutical intervention in a cohort of subjects with progressive MS, and to gauge preliminary effects of lithium on change in brain volume over time.

Methods

Patients with primary or secondary progressive MS were recruited into a 2-year, single-blind crossover trial in which subjects were randomly

SUBMITTER: Rinker JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7393418 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature