Lithium in drinking water and crime rates in Japan: cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: In pharmacological doses, lithium successfully treats bipolar disorder and it can reduce violent crimes committed by individuals with this disorder. AIMS: To investigate whether naturally occurring lithium in drinking water lowers rates of violent crime in the general population. METHOD:...

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Autores principales: Kohno, Kentaro, Ishii, Nobuyoshi, Hirakawa, Hirofumi, Terao, Takeshi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2020
Materias:
Papers
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7576670/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33054891
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2020.63
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author Kohno, Kentaro
Ishii, Nobuyoshi
Hirakawa, Hirofumi
Terao, Takeshi
author_facet Kohno, Kentaro
Ishii, Nobuyoshi
Hirakawa, Hirofumi
Terao, Takeshi
author_sort Kohno, Kentaro
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In pharmacological doses, lithium successfully treats bipolar disorder and it can reduce violent crimes committed by individuals with this disorder. AIMS: To investigate whether naturally occurring lithium in drinking water lowers rates of violent crime in the general population. METHOD: We examined lithium levels in the drinking water of the 274 municipalities of Kyushu Island in Japan and compared these with the crime rates in each municipality. RESULTS: We found that lithium levels were significantly and inversely associated with crime rates in 2009. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that even very low levels of lithium in drinking water may play a role in reducing crime rates in the general population.
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spelling pubmed-75766702020-10-28 Lithium in drinking water and crime rates in Japan: cross-sectional study Kohno, Kentaro Ishii, Nobuyoshi Hirakawa, Hirofumi Terao, Takeshi BJPsych Open Papers BACKGROUND: In pharmacological doses, lithium successfully treats bipolar disorder and it can reduce violent crimes committed by individuals with this disorder. AIMS: To investigate whether naturally occurring lithium in drinking water lowers rates of violent crime in the general population. METHOD: We examined lithium levels in the drinking water of the 274 municipalities of Kyushu Island in Japan and compared these with the crime rates in each municipality. RESULTS: We found that lithium levels were significantly and inversely associated with crime rates in 2009. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that even very low levels of lithium in drinking water may play a role in reducing crime rates in the general population. Cambridge University Press 2020-10-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7576670/ /pubmed/33054891 http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2020.63 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Papers
Kohno, Kentaro
Ishii, Nobuyoshi
Hirakawa, Hirofumi
Terao, Takeshi
Lithium in drinking water and crime rates in Japan: cross-sectional study
title Lithium in drinking water and crime rates in Japan: cross-sectional study
title_full Lithium in drinking water and crime rates in Japan: cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Lithium in drinking water and crime rates in Japan: cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Lithium in drinking water and crime rates in Japan: cross-sectional study
title_short Lithium in drinking water and crime rates in Japan: cross-sectional study
title_sort lithium in drinking water and crime rates in japan: cross-sectional study
topic Papers
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7576670/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33054891
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2020.63
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AT teraotakeshi lithiumindrinkingwaterandcrimeratesinjapancrosssectionalstudy

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