Mental health · Explanation & counselling

Starting lithium

Medium

10 min station · 2 min reading · Recommended for Curtin Year 5 students

Practising together? The others go to choicehub.co/join and type

R J F J

2 min reading · 10 min station · reminders at 2 min

Instructions

You are an intern in the psychiatry clinic. Imogen Vance, 29, has bipolar I disorder and is recovering from a manic episode. The psychiatrist has started lithium carbonate 750 mg at night and asked you to counsel her before she goes home on leave.

  1. Take a focused history from Ms Vance

  2. Counsel Ms Vance on lithium and agree a plan

  • You do not need to examine the patient

Baseline tests

Creatinine 64; eGFR over 90; TSH 1.8; calcium normal; pregnancy test negative; ECG normal. First level due in 5 days.

ChoiceHub writes these stations itself, from the ground up, across a wide range of clinical topics. They are not official exam material, and no university has written, reviewed or endorsed them. “Recommended for” only suggests the year and exam format a station suits.