Lithium has been used for decades to treat bipolar disorder, a mental health condition marked by extreme mood swings. For many years, doctors have known that lithium can help stabilize mood and prevent severe episodes of depression or mania.
Now, new research suggests that this long-standing medicine may also have benefits for brain health beyond mood disorders.
An exploratory clinical trial from the University of Pittsburgh has found that low-dose oral lithium may help slow the decline of verbal memory in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.
Mild cognitive impairment, often called MCI, is a condition in which people have noticeable problems with memory or thinking but can still carry out most daily activities. MCI can sometimes be an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease, although not everyone with MCI develops dementia.
The study, published in JAMA Neurology, focused especially on people who had evidence of amyloid beta in their bodies. Amyloid beta is a protein that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and is considered one of its key biological markers. Scientists have long searched for treatments that could slow or prevent the damage linked to amyloid buildup.
The research was led by Dr. Ariel Gildengers, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and a geriatric psychiatrist at UPMC. His earlier work had shown that older adults with bipolar disorder who took lithium for many years tended to have better markers of brain integrity.
These earlier findings raised an important question: Could lithium protect the brain in people who do not have bipolar disorder but are at risk for Alzheimer’s disease?
To explore this idea, the research team designed a two-year clinical trial. The study enrolled adults aged 60 and older who had mild cognitive impairment. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a low dose of lithium or a placebo, which is an inactive treatment used for comparison.
Throughout the study, participants underwent detailed memory testing, advanced brain imaging, and biomarker measurements.
Over the two-year period, the group receiving lithium showed a slower rate of decline on a sensitive test of verbal memory. Verbal memory refers to the ability to remember and recall words, sentences, and conversations.
This type of memory is often one of the first areas affected in Alzheimer’s disease. Although the results were not strong enough to provide final proof, they were considered encouraging.
Brain scans showed that the hippocampus, a key region involved in memory, shrank over time in both the lithium and placebo groups. Hippocampal shrinkage is a known sign of Alzheimer’s-related changes.
While the overall difference between groups was not statistically significant, further analysis suggested that lithium may have had stronger protective effects in participants who tested positive for amyloid beta.
An important outcome of the study was safety. Low-dose lithium was found to be safe and well tolerated in older adults when carefully monitored by medical professionals. This is especially important because lithium can have side effects at higher doses, and doctors have traditionally been cautious about using it in older populations.
Dr. Gildengers emphasized that lithium does not restore memory that has already been lost. Instead, if the findings are confirmed in larger trials, lithium may slow the speed of decline. This distinction is crucial. In diseases like Alzheimer’s, even slowing the progression of symptoms could have meaningful benefits for patients and families.
The researchers also noted limitations. When the study began nearly a decade ago, blood-based tests to identify amyloid were not yet available. Participants were enrolled based on clinical symptoms alone, and only some were later found to be amyloid-positive.
This may have reduced the study’s ability to detect stronger effects. If the study were designed today, researchers would likely enroll only those with confirmed amyloid buildup from the beginning.
In analyzing the findings, it is clear that this was an early-stage, exploratory trial rather than a final answer. The sample size was relatively small, and the effects observed were modest. However, the study achieved several important goals.
It showed that testing lithium in this population is feasible. It demonstrated that low-dose lithium can be used safely in older adults under supervision. It also provided hints of a biological effect, especially in people with amyloid markers.
The next step, according to the research team, is to conduct a larger and more definitive clinical trial. Such a study would use modern blood-based biomarkers to identify participants most likely to benefit and would include enough people to determine whether lithium truly slows cognitive decline linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
Overall, this research opens a promising but cautious path forward. Lithium is an inexpensive and well-known medication with decades of clinical use. If future studies confirm its protective effects on memory, it could become an important tool in delaying the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
For now, the findings offer hope while underscoring the need for careful, well-powered trials before firm conclusions can be made.
If you care about Alzheimer’s, please read studies about the likely cause of Alzheimer’s disease , and new non-drug treatment that could help prevent Alzheimer’s.
For more health information, please see recent studies about diet that may help prevent Alzheimer’s, and results showing some dementia cases could be prevented by changing these 12 things.
Copyright © 2026 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
