Medical Hypotheses
Volume 59, Issue 4 , Pages 429-432, October 2002

Lithium and antidepressants: inhibiting eicosanoids, stimulating immunity, and defeating microorganisms

  • Julian Lieb

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Julian Lieb MD, 22 Rimmon Road, Woodbridge, Conn 06525, USA. Phone: +1-203-397-1226; Fax: +1-203-397-1246

22 Rimmon Road, Woodbridge, USA

Received 19 December 2001; accepted 13 February 2002.

Abstract 

Infection-emerging, reemerging, antibiotic-resistant, and bioengineered-increasingly threatens mankind. It is widely assumed that immunostimulating agents, were they to exist, would be ideal in battling microorganisms. Various investigators have established lithium and antidepressants as immunostimulants and antimicrobials and they have identified the mechanisms involved. Eicosanoids both depress immunity and activate microorganisms and lithium and antidepressants oppose eicosanoids. Such philosophers of science as Paul Feyerabend have argued that special interests invariably oppose revolutionary paradigms.

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PII: S0306-9877(02)00148-2

Medical Hypotheses
Volume 59, Issue 4 , Pages 429-432, October 2002

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