Science / Medicine : Can Lithium Reduce Crime?

A small daily dose of lithium possibly could reduce the incidence of suicides, violent crimes and drug use, according to two UC San Diego researchers. Lithium currently is used as a drug to treat manic depressive illness.

Chemists Gerhard N. Schrauzer and K.P. Shrestha studied lithium levels in the water supply of communities in Texas and correlated those levels with the incidence of crime. They reported this month in the journal Biological Trace Element Research that communities with no lithium in the drinking water have consistently higher rates of suicides, homicides, rapes and drug abuse than do communities with naturally high levels of lithium in the drinking water.

Schrauzer also cited previous studies of prison inmates which showed that violent offenders have lower levels of lithium in their hair than do nonviolent offenders. Levels of trace metals in hair are believed by many researchers to reflect the levels in the body.