Effect of lithium administration on brain activity under an emotion regulation paradigm in healthy participants: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Rationale Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties have been previously described in bipolar disorder (BD). Whilst lithium has been shown to be effective in the treatment of BD, the mechanisms underlying lithium’s effect on mood stabilisation remain unclear. Objectives Unravelling lithium’s effect on ps...
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Published in | Psychopharmacology Vol. 240; no. 8; pp. 1719 - 1734 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Berlin/Heidelberg
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
01.08.2023
Springer Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Rationale
Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties have been previously described in bipolar disorder (BD). Whilst lithium has been shown to be effective in the treatment of BD, the mechanisms underlying lithium’s effect on mood stabilisation remain unclear.
Objectives
Unravelling lithium’s effect on psychological processes impaired in BD, such as ER, could address this translational gap and inform the development of new treatments.
Methods
This study investigated the neural effects of lithium (800mg) on ER in 33 healthy volunteers in a double-blind between-groups design, randomised to lithium (
n
=17) or placebo (
n
=16) for 11 days. At treatment completion, participants underwent 3-Tesla fMRI scan whilst performing an ER task.
Results
Reappraisal reduced negative affect across groups and led to the expected increase in frontal brain activity. Participants receiving lithium showed (1) decreased activation in prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices and connectivity between the fronto-limbic network (
Z
>2.3,
p
<0.05 corrected); and (2) increased activity in the right superior temporal gyrus (
Z
>3.1,
p
<0.05 corrected) and connectivity between the right medial temporal gyrus (MTG) and left middle frontal gyrus (
Z
>2.3,
p
<0.05 corrected) during reappraisal. Further effects of lithium were found in response to negative picture presentation, whereby an anticorrelation was found between the left amygdala and the frontal cortex, and greater connectivity between the right MTG and the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex extending into the paracingulate gyrus, compared to placebo (
Z
>2.3,
p
< 0.05 corrected).
Conclusions
These results show a potential effect of lithium on ER through its effects on activity and connectivity, and further elaborate the neural underpinnings of cognitive reappraisal. Future work should investigate longer term effects of lithium on ER in BD, ultimately benefitting the development of novel and more effective treatments. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Undefined-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0033-3158 1432-2072 1432-2072 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s00213-023-06395-7 |