Prédicteurs de réponse prophylactique au lithium

The search for new predictors of lithium prophylactic response is currently facing several methodological problems: lack of representativity of the samples of bipolar patients enrolled in research studies, poor reliability of retrospective reconstructions of the course of the bipolar disorder before initiation of lithium treatment, absence of consensus on tools used to assess response to lithium prophylaxis in study designs, difficult access and high costs of most of the laboratory and neuroimaging techniques used in recent studies such as magnetic resonance spectroscopy and LDAEP measures, and problematic evaluation of the impact of treatment on a disorder whose natural intrinsic course is often irregular.