Abstract

Chronic lithium toxicity frequently leads to a range of neurological sequelae. Although rare, it may pose a risk of permanent neurological disabilities. A 45-year-old female patient was admitted with a history of bipolar disorder, previously stable on lithium. She presented with confusion, worsening tremor, dysarthria, and gait ataxia. Her prolonged neurological impairments, with the rare complication of foreign accent syndrome, required an interdisciplinary rehabilitation team approach, provided by a rehabilitation physician, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, nutritional therapist, speech therapist, psychologist and social worker. The rehabilitation program consisted of muscle strengthening, balance and coordination exercises, gait retraining, functional task retraining, cognitive remediation strategies, nutritional support, targeted communication strategies, psychosocial and psychiatric support to assist her transition toward community reintegration. In conclusion, timely delivery of neurological rehabilitation interventions is of utmost importance in helping maximize the patient’s functional independence, psychosocial outcomes and quality of life.

Citation:
Evans MD, Song K. Neurological inpatient rehabilitation in chronic lithium toxicity: A case report. Arch ISPRM 2026;1(1):92-97. https://doi.org/10.5606/archisprm.2026.12.

M.D.E., K.S.: Designed research, wrote the paper; M.D.E.: Had primary responsibility for final content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not‑for‑profit sectors.

Data Availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

AI Disclosure
The authors declare that artificial intelligence (AI) tools were not used, or were used solely for language editing, and had no role in data analysis, interpretation, or the formulation of conclusions. All scientific content, data interpretation, and conclusions are the sole responsibility of the authors. The authors further confirm that AI tools were not used to generate, fabricate, or ‘hallucinate’ references, and that all references have been carefully verified for accuracy.