Clinical study on the pharmacokinetics of lithium carbonate.

: To investigate clinical pharmacokinetics of lithium carbonate, 28 hospitalized mental patients and 8 healthy volunteers were studied. The serum concentration/time profile in the single dose peroral experiments could be fitted to a pharmacokinetic model using an open two compartmental system. Three methods, 72-h and 24-h residual method and Ritschel's repeated one-point method were used and the results compared with one another. According to the results of this paper, we suggest the use of Ritschel's repeated one-point method for clinical dosage regimen determination.