[andreasvc]

Where do you get this idea of lithium making people "docile"? It does not; you may be confusing it with antipsychotic medication. In any case as the comment you are responding to states, these are very low doses, such effects could not occur. Your emotional language of "soulless robots" is really just an uninformed, knee jerk reaction.

I can see why the drinking water suggestion invites paranoia. As the article mentions a solution like adding it to salt could also work.

[jamesisaac]

No, mine wasn't an "uninformed, knee jerk reaction" - it's was the informed conclusion I came to after some research (prior to this article) into prescription doses of lithium. Becoming docile, turning into a soulless robot, mood supressions - whatever you want to call it - is an extremely commonly reported side-effect by those with first-hand experience. Several people in this thread (go right up to the top parent comment by hammock) have already backed this up with their own experience, yet you still seem to be dismissing it.

As to why that is relevant to microdosing...

- High doses: major mood suppression -> practically no chance of suicide

- Micro doses: (?) -> lower chance of suicide

Simple reasoning would suggest that (?) == some degree of mood suppression. I'm not sure how you've concluded that this "could not occur" with lower doses?

Putting it in salt is hardly better than putting it in the water supply, it's still systematic mass "medication" which would become difficult to avoid.

[andreasvc]

I won't discount that therapeutic doses may have such side-effects, but the question is whether that is relevant to the present discussion. I claim that the side effect of being docile would not occur at a dosage of 100 times smaller than therapeutic doses. Maybe there is such a thing as a "1/100th as docile" effect, but it doesn't always make sense to extrapolate effects linearly; it can also be that the effect just isn't there. The way I arrive at that intuition is by making an analogy with water: you can drown in a bathtub of water, but no person can drown in a droplet of water.

You call it "simple reasoning" to make your inference about microdosing, but actually we have no idea how lithium even affects the brain / mind, so it's not possible to arrive at the conclusion by reason. It would have to come from evidence from controlled studies, and I believe these indicate that side-effects are restricted to high doses.

Also, "practically no chance of suicide" -- you can't be serious about that; no drug can guarantee or even come close to that.

You already have salt with and without iodine, so no, wouldn't be difficult to avoid. Whether you should call it "medication" is debatable; giving someone vitamin C is not necessarily medication, it can be a food supplement. The same could be argued for lithium which occurs naturally in certain water springs.

[milkshakes]

have you taken lithium?

i have, for years, and i currently take "antipsychotic medication", which is actually a yet another term that, thanks to marketing, has lost all meaning. the comments about lithium making you "docile", and "soulless robots" are spot on. and there are "antipsychotics" that act as mood stabilizers that are a lot less soul-sucking than lithium is.

respectfully, it is you who are misinformed.

[andreasvc]

You are projecting your experience with therapeutic doses on the current discussion about doses that would be orders of magnitude lower, similar to naturally occurring levels in some water supplies. Even at therapeutic doses I think you are generalizing too much, as many people do not experience such side effects.

[milkshakes]

> Where do you get this idea of lithium making people "docile"? It does not; you may be confusing it with antipsychotic medication.

that is the statement i was responding to.

> Even at therapeutic doses I think you are generalizing too much, as many people do not experience such side effects.

that's cool and all, but that's just, like, your opinion, man. if you're going to accuse me of generalizing, you could at least do so with something other than a sweeping, unqualified generalization. i find it amusing that this thread is full of people who don't actually take this medication telling people who actually have what its effects are. in fact, lithium has been documented both anecdotally and in research[2] to have measurable effects on cognition, and a dulling effect on mood.

[2]: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=lithium+cognitive+effect...

[andreasvc]

> > Where do you get this idea of lithium making people "docile"? It does not;

Granted, I was overstating my case there. But I maintain, not everyone has those side effects. The more pertinent point was that the article is advocating trace amounts.