«Psychiatry has long struggled with the fact that, while lithium is highly effective for treating bipolar disorder, the narrow therapeutic window and
side effect profile often makes lithium both difficult and sometimes dangerous to work with clinically,» said Todd Gould, MD, of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland, an expert in the mechanisms of lithium and the neurobiology of bipolar disorder.
They note that a related compound with better pharmacological
profiles than CLP257 was as effective in reducing pain in rats as an existing pain treatment called pregabalin, but it lacked the undesirable motor
side effects that are
often seen with that drug.