Lithium treatment and suicide risk in major affective disorders: update and new findings.

Evidence that therapeutic benefits of psychiatric treatments include reduction of suicide risk is remarkably limited and poorly studied. An exception is growing evidence for such suicidal risk reduction with long-term lithium maintenance. This report updates and extends analyses of lithium treatment and suicides and attempts.We pooled data from studies providing data on suicidal acts, patients at risk, and average exposure times with or without...