Psychotropic drugs and personality changes: A case of lithium

Background the effect of psychopharmacological treatment on personality has been mostly studied with antidepressant drugs. previously,we demonstrated an association between long-term lithium response and affective temperaments measured by the temperament scale of memphis,pisa,paris and san diego-autoquestionnaire (temps-a),and schizotypic traits,measured by the oxford-liverpool inventory of feelings and experiences (o-life). therefore,we were interested whether long-term lithium treatment per se may influence personality traits measured by these scales. methods the study was performed on 40 patients with bipolar mood disorder (16 male,24 female) with a mean age of 46 ± 10 years,either hospitalized or attending the outpatient clinic,department of adult psychiatry,poznan university of medical sciences. among them,twenty patients (8 male,12 female) have received lithium for 10-33 years,and twenty (8 male,12 female) have never been exposed to lithium and have been given other mood-stabilizing drugs. each patient,had the assessment made by the temps-a and o-life,during euthymic state. results patients on long-term lithium treatment were significantly older and had longer duration of bipolar illness compared with non-lithium patients. lithium-treated patients obtained significantly lower scores of cyclothymic and irritable temperaments on the temps-a,and of unusual experiences,cognitive disorganization and impulsive nonconformity on the o-life. conclusions it is hypothesized that the differences in personality,revealed by the temps-a and o-life scales,are related to the long-term treatment with lithium. the decrease in cyclothymic temperament and in cognitive disorganization trait were previously shown to be associated with the therapeutic effect of lithium. © 2015 institute of pharmacology,polish academy of sciences.all rights reserved.