Abstract
Since its introduction in the 1960s lithium has been an effective agent for stabilising mood in the treatment of bipolar disorder. However, its use has been linked to impaired memory and slow reaction times. Car crashes resulting from drug use are becoming a major public health hazard among elderly people. The authors assessed the association between elderly people’s use of lithium and their involvement in motor vehicle crashes. They also assessed another common mood stabiliser, carbamazepine, which has a different mechanism of action to lithium. (Author/publisher)