Resolved Question

my mother was on lithium for more that thirty years. She had survived four suicide attempts before going on lithium and it was the only med that worked for her (sever bipolar). In the end, lithium did not affect her kidneys, but it destroyed the gland in her body (cannot remember the name of it) that secretes the hormone that regulates the levels of salt in her blood. The salt levels spiked and she sustained brain damage. This syndrome is referred to as Diabetes Insipidus (the Diabetes that we usually think of is when the body cannot regulate its blood sugar levels - that is Diabetes Mellitus (spelling?)). Anyway, she had been on the drug for thirty years before this final, sad ending, and although she passed due to complications from the salt blood levels, she was 81 years old, not an untimely death. The drug bought us thirty good years with us before it took her - she would have succeeded with a suicide attempt long before she was 81 if she hadn't taken lithium