Depression drug may help treat brain diseases.

NEW YORK, Oct 06 (Reuters Health) - Lithium, currently used to treat symptoms of bipolar disorder, or manic-depressive illness, may someday be used to treat degenerative brain conditions such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's diseases, researchers suggest.

Dr. Gregory J. Moore, from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan and his colleagues analysed the effect of lithium on 10 individuals with bipolar mood disorder. Bipolar disorder is a chronic condition characterised by emotional 'cycles' of manic highs and depressive lows.

After 4 weeks of lithium treatment, 8 of the 10 study participants experienced an average 3% increase in their total brain grey-matter volume, the investigators report in the October 7th issue of The Lancet. The grey matter is the outer layer of the brain involved in thinking and processing information.

"This is the first time a drug has been proven to increase grey matter in the human brain," Moore stated.

"This has possible future implications for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases," Moore told Reuters Health. "Specifically, if one can prevent neurons from dying or even increase the number or size of neurons in the brain after there has been some neuronal degeneration, one could potentially slow down, halt, or even reverse some of the effects of these devastating diseases."

The researcher cautioned that even though these study results may be exciting, they "should be considered preliminary until larger numbers of (individuals) can be studied and until the findings can be replicated by other laboratories."