Depression is a common illness, affecting millions of people across the globe. It is also an illness that can vary a lot between different people, even if they have the same diagnosis. The main symptoms of depression are low mood, loss of interest, and feeling hopeless, in addition to other symptoms like problems with sleep, appetite, and energy levels. Sometimes people have the main symptoms of depression, but they also experience other symptoms of mania at the same time, such as talkativeness, racing thoughts, agitation or increased energy, and not needing to sleep. This might be a certain type of depression called “mixed” depression/depression with “mixed features”. It often isn’t picked up by doctors, and there isn’t too much evidence of how to best treat it aside from the usual treatments for depression. 

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The MixLi study is investigating a supplement called “lithium orotate” in helping people with this type of depression. Lithium is a natural salt – like sodium – and is in drinking water in tiny amounts. Lithium orotate is a supplement that has been available to buy over the counter (accessible to anyone without a prescription) for decades. It contains a small amount of lithium that could help people with mixed depression, potentially improving symptoms such as low mood and mood swings. Lithium is already used to treat bipolar disorder, but it is given in much higher doses. As a supplement, lithium orotate is already taken by many, mostly to improve mood, but there is not much scientific evidence to date on how well it works. As a common supplement, it is thought to be generally very safe to take.

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The MixLi study is recruiting 40 people with “mixed” depression, who are already undergoing treatment for depression. Over six months, participants will be asked to take 20mg of lithium orotate every day. Participants will be assessed by researchers six times over this period, and they will look at several things, including a participant’s:

• Mood, including low mood, anxiety, and symptoms specific to mixed depression 

• Thinking skills

• Quality of life and daily life functioning

• Level of lithium in the blood

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Researchers will look at whether participants see an improvement in their symptoms while taking lithium orotate.

In addition, researchers will look at whether the study works well for participants. If it is found that lithium orotate helps people with mixed depression, and that taking part in the study is acceptable to participants, researchers can then look more closely in a bigger clinical trial to find out what type of benefits lithium orotate has, and how large those benefits might be.

The research team extends its gratitude to the Psychiatry Research Trust for allowing this study to happen.

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