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Could The Stiffness In My Wrist And Shoulder A Side Effect Caused By Lithium Or Is It Arthritis?
Diagnosed with Bi-Polar...... On Lithium for the past three months....
Between my wrist and shoulder is very stiff and painful..I could not scratch my lower back
as firstly it would be too painful/stiff on my upperarm when trying to reach it.
Then when I would be resting my arm/hand on the table or arm of settee for a while it would be
very painful in the lower arm (elbow to wrist) if I tried to e.g scratch my eye..
Could this be a side effect of Lithium is it plain old miserable arthritis ???
Thanks for your time
Between my wrist and shoulder is very stiff and painful..I could not scratch my lower back
as firstly it would be too painful/stiff on my upperarm when trying to reach it.
Then when I would be resting my arm/hand on the table or arm of settee for a while it would be
very painful in the lower arm (elbow to wrist) if I tried to e.g scratch my eye..
Could this be a side effect of Lithium is it plain old miserable arthritis ???
Thanks for your time
Fri, 3 Jan 2014
Hi, thanks for writing to HCM.
A few musculo-skeletal side effects such as tremors in hand, muscle weakness, muscle irritability, fasciculations etc may occur during lithium therapy. The incidence of these side effects depends on the serum lithium levels.
So, estimation of serum lithium levels will be useful to exclude lithium toxicity. If your lithium levels are normal, then your symptoms could be attributed to local pathology in the joints.
Consult an orthopedic surgeon for a detailed evaluation regarding the status of your joints.
Hope this information is helpful. Good day
A few musculo-skeletal side effects such as tremors in hand, muscle weakness, muscle irritability, fasciculations etc may occur during lithium therapy. The incidence of these side effects depends on the serum lithium levels.
So, estimation of serum lithium levels will be useful to exclude lithium toxicity. If your lithium levels are normal, then your symptoms could be attributed to local pathology in the joints.
Consult an orthopedic surgeon for a detailed evaluation regarding the status of your joints.
Hope this information is helpful. Good day
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