Study reveals how lithium treatment benefits survivors of suicide attempts

Houston, TX - May 7, 2026

Researchers studying the effects of lithium on suicide attempt have found that it might reduce impulsive decision making in patients with recent medically severe suicide attempts. Impulsive decision making is a predictor of suicide risk among these individuals. A team of researchers with Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Harris Health System uncovered the effects of lithium among survivors of suicide attempt. The paper was published in Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in people between 10 and 30 years of age. The leading cause of death is traumatic injury, and there are associations between traumatic injury and risk for severe suicide attempts. While many associate suicide with major psychiatric disorders, most people who commit suicide do not have a psychiatric diagnosis. Suicidal ideation is linked with certain major psychiatric disorders, but there is a need to identify people who are suicidal without a single mental health diagnosis.

“Sixty percent of suicides are the first attempts. We have to predict how to prevent the first attempt,” said Dr. Alan Swann, senior author and professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor. “To understand suicide and its prevention better, we need to get a good, logically economic view of how lithium works and how that is related to predictors of severe suicidal behaviors.”

The process of acquiring the capacity to commit suicide is complicated and not linear, according to Dr. Nicholas Murphy, co-first author, research associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Texas A&M and adjunct professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor.

“The capacity to commit suicide dysregulates executive and emotional functioning and the ability to sensibly make decisions on how to handle stressful situations. What we understand from previous research is that there are complex biomechanical factors that prevent neurotransmitters from properly encoding this information. Lithium works to restore some of these cellular processes, which may make it a viable tool to improve decision making in patients at risk for a suicide attempt,” Murphy said.

Lithium has been touted as a potential treatment for this since it has effects on different cell populations, helping with restoration and regeneration of brain function. The research team gave study participants lithium over a four-week period and measured their brain wave activity using resting state electroencephalography (EEG), specifically monitoring their gamma waves, which are involved with executive functioning.

“We saw that lithium appeared to normalize those waves related to impulse and decision control, hopefully preventing these survivors of a recent medically severe suicide attempt from committing another act of suicide. The highest risk window of committing another suicide attempt is during the time frame after they get stabilized,” said Dr. Ynhi Thomas, co-first author and assistant professor in the Henry J.N. Taub Department of Emergency Medicine at Baylor.

Participants at high risk of a recurrent suicide attempt were recruited for this study from the Ben Taub Emergency Center and Michael E. DeBakey Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and were matched with psychiatric controls. Lithium and a placebo were orally administered to each participant for the randomized trial. Researchers monitored lithium levels and measured their EEG outcomes. They found that patients with a history of survived medically severe suicide attempts had more indicators of heightened arousal, such as aggressive behavior across their lifetime, impulsivity and lack of planning. They also found when looking at their history that they had a greater amount of trauma in their childhood.

“This gives us an indicator of a potential window into how we might wind up with behavior leading into the development of this chronic pathology: increased stress and its effects on decision making, executive planning and executive function,” Murphy said.

The study uncovered that these patients had greater levels of impulsive behavior at baseline. Decision-making strategy improved with lithium, consistent with reported lithium effects in both animal and human subjects. Lithium-related changes to behavior were consistent enhancements to the strength of gamma waves relative to placebo and baseline.

Lithium allows these patients to process information before making decisions. Behavior is regulated by balance of activation and inhibition. The brain takes about 300 milliseconds before it reaches conscious awareness.

“People who are impulsive and have a hard time controlling their impulsivity might act milliseconds before the brain reaches conscious awareness, and that action can be fatal in terms of a suicide attempt,” Thomas said. “Lithium gives your brain that ability to hold back and think about your actions more.”

This is the first human study looking at lithium to treat suicide and EEG outcomes. The team hopes to further understand the biological mechanisms of lithium and how it potentially works as a treatment for suicidal patients being discharged from an emergency setting and out to the real world. They also aim to find the biological and pharmacological link to lithium in the long-term for these patients.

“The emergency department is a very good place to intervene because a lot of patients might not have access to care otherwise or the ability to get connected to metal healthcare until they present. We have a great opportunity to intervene and connect that person to outpatient care and stabilize them,” Thomas said.

Suicide is not only linked to mood or behavior; there is a biological mechanism to suicide that researchers want to address. There is no existing medication for suicide prevention, and this study offers hope. Lithium is FDA-approved for bipolar disorder, and the team strives to develop a new, promising treatment for suicide.

Other contributors to this research include Dr. Nidal Moukaddam, professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor; Dr. Thomas Kosten, professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor; Dr. Sanjay Mathew, professor and department head of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Texas A&M; and research coordinators Ioana Murgulet, Krisha Shah and Julia Engelhardt.