Abstract
within the therapeutic range has been reported. Peripheral neuropathy attributed to lithium has been more seldomly reported (Vanhooren et al., 1990). No previous studies, at least to our knowledge, have quantitatively addressed the question whether chronic lithium treatment causes morphological changes in the peripheral nervous system in experimental animals. The present study used stereological methods to determine whether long-term administration of lithium affected fiber calibers in the rat sural nerve. Twenty-two rats were divided into two groups and given either no treatment or lithium with serum levels ranging from 0.5 to 0.7 mmol/1. After 30 weeks of treatment, the animals were killed and the sural nerve was isolated at the level of the knee and removed. Areas of axons and nerve fibers were estimated by point counting. A reduction in mean axon and nerve fiber area in the lithium treated rats of 8.6% and 9.0% compared to controls was observed. However, this did not reach statistical significance at the 5% level.
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