Explanation for Woman's Fast-Growing Tremor Turns Out to Be ElementaryA. Bruce Munro wonders how things might have turned out if he hadn't lost it and dialed 911.
The retired obstetrician had watched with mounting alarm as his wife, Bettie, seemed to get sicker by the day. For decades her health had been stable, regulated by medicines she took to control her cholesterol, blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, a thyroid condition and a mood disorder.
But in March 2006, Bettie Munro had developed a tremor that became very bad very fast. Doctors assumed she was suffering from a rapidly progressive case of Parkinson's disease, but the neurologist treating her was baffled about why the increasingly potent drugs he prescribed didn't seem to help.
...
He still vividly remembers the ER doctor's first words: "He said, 'She's got a lithium level of 2.1,' " Munro recalled. "I knew that was toxic." A normal level is between 0.5 and 1.2 millimoles per liter.
At high levels, lithium, which is used to treat mood disorders including manic depression, can cause tremor, convulsions, confusion, memory problems, coma and even death. The drug has a narrow therapeutic range: A bit too much can be toxic and too little can be ineffective, which is one reason people taking it receive blood tests to check their levels.
Washington Post
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