A New Spin on an Old Standard: Lithium Ascorbate and Changes in Anxiety, Depression, and Mood

Background: Lithium ascorbate is an organic lithium salt with preclinical evidence of antidepressant-like and stress-attenuating effects and potential relevance to affective and anxiety-related conditions. Methods: This open-label study evaluated the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of lithium ascorbate over 10 weeks in 54 participants with subclinical neurotic symptoms and mild affective or adjustment disorders. The study evaluated anxiety, depressive symptoms, well-being, activity, mood, overall clinical status, adverse events, and blood lithium concentrations. Results: Anxiety and depressive symptom severity decreased over the study period, accompanied by improvements in subjective well-being, activity, and mood. At the final assessment, 94.0% of evaluated participants had no depressive symptoms and 75.9% had low anxiety. Positive clinical dynamics were reported in 77.8% of participants, although 18% received concomitant antidepressant therapy. No toxic effects were reported, and blood lithium concentrations remained below the therapeutic range typically used for lithium carbonate. Conclusions: Lithium ascorbate was associated with improvement in mild affective and anxiety-related symptoms and showed acceptable short-term tolerability in this exploratory study.