
Lithium in water 'curbs suicide' - soundsop
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8025454.stm
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dfranke
If I want psychoactive chemicals in my beverage, I'll get them from coffee,
not tap water, thanks very much.

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CalmQuiet
The BBC report mentions studies with similar results in 1980s. I remember them
from my grad school days in 1970s.

However... note that these are _epidemiological_ studies, and demonstrated (as
I recall) that _bipolar_ (aka manic-depressive) depressive illness is lower in
areas of U.S. with higher natural lithium.

Even if it could be demonstrated that lithium-ingestion in water did reduce
incidence of bipolar illness, this would _not_ be expected to improve
depression among those with the more common, uni-polar depression:: There has
_never_ been evidence that lithium is a "mood enhancer" or "psychoactive" -
only that _deficiencies_ of lithium may bring out or aggravate latent bipolar
depressive illness. — A (non-clinical) psychology Ph.D.

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anigbrowl
Study short report here: <http://www.scribd.com/doc/14828519/>

While I also have reservations about dosing the water supply, I don't think
flouride is such a bad thing; and the study suggests that micro-doses as
described seem to reduce the rate of suicide by up to a third, which is
nothing to sneeze at.

Some illness and suffering is caused by modern life an technology (on a
personal level, I think our emphasis on getting up early and minimizing the
amount of sleep we need is a very bad thing). While it needs a lot of further
study, I wonder if rather than looking at something like this as a
prophylactic, we should ask if it isn't rectifying an induced deficiency.

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dcurtis
I was skeptical when the article didn't mention any numbers, and even more
skeptical when the report's summary didn't mention them. But then I saw this
graph, and I'm really kind of surprised at how big of an effect tiny amounts
of lithium actually had:

[http://dustincurtis.com/screenshots/Lithium_levels_in_drinki...](http://dustincurtis.com/screenshots/Lithium_levels_in_drinking_water_and_risk_of_suicide-20090502-030727.jpg)

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tokenadult
It would be worthwhile here to read the article by Peter Norvig, director of
research at Google, on how to interpret scientific research.

<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>

Lithium's mechanism of action in patients who take it as a prescribed
medication is not well understood, and it would take a great deal of follow-up
to see if this epidemiological study is verified, especially as to its effect
size reported here.

Re: the comment about unipolar versus bipolar depression posted earlier, the
suicide risk is much higher for bipolar depression (it is highest for the
pattern of mood called bipolar II), so reducing bipolar mood variation would
seem to have great promise for reducing completed suicide.

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kurtosis
I've heard that the soft drink 7-up once contained lithium among its
ingredients. I don't think it's a good idea to add lithium to drinking water
because of its toxicity, but I don't see anything intrinsically wrong with
adding chemicals psychoactive or not to the drinking water for the purposes of
public health. If it is permissible to add fluoride to water to improve the
average smile, I don't see how one could object to adding a chemical to
improve the average mood. (provided that the chemical was otherwise harmless)

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davidw
Speaking of lithium in water...

If you ever go through Ashland, Oregon (you're driving north/south on I-5 for
instance), be sure to visit here for a nice break:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithia_Park>

It's a popular prank to bring visitors to the park and let them sample the
water, which is really wretched.

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swombat
Why stop at Lithium? Surely a more comprehensive solution to mood disorders in
the population would be to add prozac into the water supply.

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skalpelis
It's already there - it doesn't break down completely in the digestive tract
and some of it gets flushed out with the urine, which, well, sooner or later
ends up in the water supply.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3545684.stm>

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Confusion
Man doesn't consume vitamines and trace elements in the optimal amounts. They
never did, but as we gain enough understanding of the interactions, we can
amend that problem and make for healthier, happier humans. I see no reason why
we shouldn't, provided that the criterion 'enough understanding' is met.

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ftse
The problem is the definition of 'healthier, happier humans'. Who gets to
decide? Some people would be keen ensure 'healthier, happier humans' ==
compliant slaves.

~~~
Confusion
In practice there usually isn't a problem when making these sorts of
decisions, because the decision requires popular support. If adding lithium
reduces suicides by a factor of three, probably adds to the general,
measureable, happiness of many more and is shown not to have any adverse 'side
effects', including effects like 'being less critical when appraising opinions
of authority figures' (which is a sort of effect that likely would be
investigated, as a natural part of investigating the mind altering qualities
of adding lithium to the water) then almost everyone would decide in favor of
adding the substance.

