Braz J Psychiatry. 2022 Sep 1. doi: 10.47626/1516-4446-2022-2767. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To re-evaluate a sample of older adults enrolled in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) using lithium for treatment of amnestic mild-cognitive impairment (MCI) after 11 to 15 years, by re-assessing their current (or last available) global cognitive and functional state.
METHODS: We recalled all former participants of the ‘Lithium-MCI’ trial conducted by our group between 2009 and 2012 to perform a single-blinded, cross-sectional evaluation of their global clinical state, in order to compare the long-term outcome of subjects previously allocated in lithium group vs. those who received placebo.
RESULTS: From the original sample (n=61), we were able to reach for 36 participants (59% of retention), of whom 22 had previously received lithium (61% of the recall sample), and 14 (39%) had received placebo. As 30.5% of recalled sample was deceased, psychometric data was collected only for 69.5% of our participants. We found statistically significant differences in current mean mini mental state examination score according to previous treatment groups (25.5 [5.3] vs. 18.3 [10.9], p=0.04). These subjects also had better performance in the phonemic verbal fluency test compared to non-users (34.4 [14.4] vs. 11.6 [10.10], p<0.001). Differences in these measures also displayed large effect sizes, as shown by Cohen’s d values of 0.92 and 1.78 respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: The present set of data suggests that older adults with amnestic MCI who had been treated with lithium during a previous RCT had a better long-term global cognitive outcome than those from a matched sample who did not receive the intervention.
PMID:36049127 | DOI:10.47626/1516-4446-2022-2767
