Does lithium cause congestive heart failure?

My friend was on lithium and his doctor did not monitor the lithium levels. He now has congestive heart failure and he is under 50.

I just did a quick review of the literature on this on Medline/Pubmed. I couldn't find anything specific about heart failure, but there are reports in the literature showing an association between lithium and cardiac arrhythmia's.

It is important to recognize that depressive disorders (the usual medical indication for lithium) are themselves associated with increased risks for heart diseases. For this reason (as well as many others) a better approach to treating these patients than merely prescribing symptom masking drugs, is to properly evaluate their 'total health' and find the underlying problems that are not only causing their depression, but are also causing other health problems such as heart disease.

For example, essential fatty acid deficiencies are common in western civilization and can cause depression and heart disease. Sadly, very few doctors test for these common nutritional causes. Another common biochemical problem is magnesium deficiency. Magnesium deficiency is rarely evaluated, yet it too has been associated with both depression and heart diseases. There are many other examples in the research literature, but most doctors don't read the research.

Hope this is helpful for you. Best wishes.

Here is a web site that might help

I looked at the adverse reactions that could occur with lithium and it does not state that lithium would directly cause congestive heart failure (CHF).

There are many medical problems that can cause CHF. For example hypertension, hyperthyroidism, a fairly large myocardial infarction (heart attack), sleep apnea (is your friend morbidly obese?), the list goes on...

I would look to other medical problems before considering that lithium was the sole cause.

no