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In 2007, the singer Britney Spears suffered a nervous breakdown, after which she was incapacitated and came under the tutelage of her father and a lawyer. After 13 years, the artist confessed in court that her guardians forced her to take lithium. It is the lightest metal, used, among others, in in the treatment of bipolar disorder.
- In psychiatry, lithium is administered to some patients suffering from bipolar disorder, depression or schizophrenia
- The human body reacts to it differently. Britney confessed that the drug made her feel drunk and unable to talk after it. Lit also took, among others Kurt Cobain or Mel Gibson
- A controversial experiment in guinea pigs led to the use of lithium in humans. And his results were… wrong
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage.
Britney Spears takes lithium. “I felt drunk”
At the turn of the 90s and the new century, Britney Spears was a “prodigy” of pop culture. She was very successful, won prizes, and was loved by millions of people around the world. The lovely blonde who vowed to keep her clean until the wedding ended up jumping down the hill. An unsuccessful marriage, a famous photo of an American woman with her head shaved on a match, and later information that the court decided to incapacitate her – with Britney in the XNUMXst century things were getting worse. It was then that she lost the right to custody of her children.
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Since 2007, the American star has been under the tutelage of his father, Jamie Spears. She is incapacitated and cannot make any decisions regarding her health or finances. The legal guardians of Britney Spears are her father and lawyer Andrew Wallete.
Now, 13 years later, Britney Spears wants to “get her life back”. To this end, she turned to the court, where she confessed that she was forced to take lithium against her will.
– It’s a strong drug. You can become mentally retarded if you take it for more than five months, Britney told the judge she was connected to virtually.
The singer also confessed how lithium influenced her well-being.
– I felt drunk. I couldn’t even defend myself. I couldn’t talk to my parents about anything. I told them I was afraid, but six nurses came to my home to monitor me.
In addition to lithium, the singer is also to be forced to use contraception.
Britney Spears has bipolar disorder. Like many other stars
Britney Spears was openly talking about her mental problems a few years ago. The singer suffers from bipolar disorder, which has also affected many other people who are “in the spotlight”. The same disorder was also diagnosed in Jimi Hendrix, Frank Sinatra, Mariah Carey, Catherine Zety-Jones, Sinead O’Connor, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mel Gibson and Kurt Cobain. In the case of the latter two, it is certain that the doctors prescribed them a lithium therapy.
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In bipolar disorder, the patient has episodes of depression followed by episodes of mania or hypomania. This means that after a period of low mood, lack of energy and willingness to live, the patient becomes agitated, overactive, accompanied by a feeling of power and power. In the most difficult cases of bipolar disorder, the cycles progress very quickly. The disease affects about 2-3 out of 100 people in the world. Among untreated bipolar patients, the suicide rate is up to 20 times higher than that of healthy subjects.
Pharmacological treatment of bipolar disorder is based on mood stabilizers, including lithium salts, valproate and carbamazepine. They have an antidepressant, anti-manic, but also prophylactic effect.
History of lithium. It started out with strangely peaceful guinea pigs
Lithium has become one of the important weapons in psychiatry thanks to controversial experiments conducted just after the Second World War by John Cade – an Australian psychiatrist.
A doctor, who worked at a hospital in Melbourne, began collecting the urine of patients suffering from depression, mania or schizophrenia to investigate whether any secretions it contained could cause such disorders. Since Cade was unable to perform in-depth biochemical analyzes, he had to rely on a slightly different method. He began injecting the patients’ urine into the abdominal cavity of the guinea pigs. The doctor increased the fluid dose until the animals died. In this brutal way, Cade determined that the urine of mania sufferers was particularly poisonous to guinea pigs. It was after him that they died the fastest.
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In the next stage of the experiments, Cade found that lithium reduces the toxicity of patients’ urine. Not only that – after administering a liquid enriched with this element, guinea pigs achieved amazing peace. It was possible to roll them over on their backs, and they looked forward without emotion. This reassured Cade that lithium could have the same calming effect on mania patients. So he started testing this therapy on himself, and shortly thereafter began treating the sick.
Cade’s experiment turned out to be groundbreaking for psychiatry, although it was wrong in its very premise. As the journal Nature writes, guinea pigs did not become relaxed after the letter. Their calmness was probably the result of an overdose of this metal.
In what diseases is lithium used? Who cannot use it?
Lithium therapy is used in people who have mania, hypomania or periods of depression that are not amenable to other forms of treatment. It is a drug used in bipolar disorder or in people suffering from schizophrenia. It also helps in reducing auto-aggressive behavior.
Side effects of lithium include nausea, diarrhea, dryness and a metallic taste in the mouth.
Contraindication to the use of lithium may be heart and kidney diseases or untreated hypothyroidism. Also on the list are pregnancy, breastfeeding, but also the situation when a woman is trying to conceive.
Also read:
- When mental illness moves into our home, let’s learn how to live with it
- Male depression does not exist? This is a problem that is underestimated
- Depression in children – causes, symptoms. How to help a child with depression?
- Depression – How to Fight It? When is it worth getting laboratory tests for depression? [WE EXPLAIN]
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