Peter Roy-Byrne, MD

Yes, according to results from this longitudinal, registry-based study

The course of bipolar illness seems to worsen over time with increased episode frequency, higher relapse rates, and more cognitive impairment and social disability. Would giving lithium early in the illness be advantageous? To see whether it would yield better response rates than later prescription, researchers examined Danish registry data from 1995 to 2012 on 4714 bipolar patients who began lithium after a manic episode.

There were two sets of definitions for “early” and “late” lithium treatment: whether the episode was the first or recurrent, and whether lithium was started immediately after initial contact or sometime later in patients with a single episode. Regardless of the definition, patients treated “early” had lower rates of nonresponse (defined as need for added medications or hospitalization after 6 months' stabilization) in analyses controlling for multiple confounding factors (hazard ratio, 0.87).

Citation(s):

Kessing LV et al. Starting lithium prophylaxis early v. late in bipolar disorder. Br J Psychiatry 2014 Jul 10; [e-pub ahead of print].