Reports of delayed recovery from anesthesia by patients concurrently
receiving lithium carbonate and a neuromuscular blocker have been followed
by a recommendation to avoid such a combination and, hence, concurrent
treatment with lithium and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The authors
review the literature and their clinical experience with such a drug
combination at one psychiatric hospital. They conclude that the clinical
and experimental findings to date are insufficient to warrant proscribing
the combination of lithium and ECT on the basis of possible potentiation of
neuromuscular blockade by lithium.
Abstract Teaser