• Posted March 4, 2026

Lithium Might Slow Brain Decline Among Seniors, Pilot Study Shows

The mood disorder drug lithium might have brain benefits beyond simply warding off depression and anxiety, a new study says.

A pilot clinical trial has found that low-dose lithium tablets might help slow verbal decline among seniors with mild cognitive impairment, researchers reported March 2 in JAMA Neurology.

Seniors taking lithium for two years had better ability to remember and recall words and sentences compared to others taking a placebo, the study found.

The results weren’t definitive, but provided signs positive enough to warrant larger follow-up studies, researchers said.

“The key point is that lithium doesn’t restore lost memory,” lead researcher Dr. Ariel Gildengers, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a news release. “What it appears to do — if the signal holds up — is slow deterioration.”

For the new trial, researchers recruited 80 seniors with an average age of 72, and randomly assigned them to take either low-dose lithium or a placebo for two years. 

Participants underwent cognitive tests and brain scans to assess the drug’s effect on brain function and structure.

Previous research has indicated that lithium deficiency might underlie the brain degeneration that occurs with Alzheimer’s disease, researchers said in background notes.

“In a prior study, we observed that older adults with bipolar disorder who take lithium long‑term tend to show markers of better brain integrity,” Gildengers said. “The new question was whether those apparent neuroprotective effects might extend beyond mood disorders — and whether we could test that rigorously in a prospective clinical trial.”

People taking lithium had a slower rate of decline on a test of verbal memory, which is something known to deteriorate early in Alzheimer’s disease, researchers said.

Brain imaging scans showed that the hippocampus – a critical region for memory – shrank over time in both groups.

However, the scans and tests suggested a larger protective effect among people whose brains contained higher levels of amyloid beta, a toxic protein linked to Alzheimer’s.

The trial was launched in 2018, when blood tests for amyloid beta weren’t available. As a result, participants were enrolled based on their clinical symptoms alone, and only some turned out to be amyloid-positive. This could have diluted the study’s ability to suss out stronger effects of lithium among these patients, researchers said.

“If we were designing this study today, we would enroll participants based on amyloid status from the start,” Gildengers said. “That’s exactly what we’re planning for next.”

The results also showed that low-dose lithium can be taken safely by seniors. The team now is seeking support for a larger, more definitive clinical trial.

“This study tells us that the approach is feasible, safe and worth pursuing,” Gildengers said. “But it also reminds us why careful, adequately powered trials are essential — especially when the stakes are this high.”

More information

The National Institutes of Health has more about lithium.

SOURCE: University of Pittsburgh, news release, March 2, 2026