An antiviral effect of lithium has been proposed, but never investigated for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Using electronic health records of 26 554 patients with documented serum lithium levels during the pandemic, we show that the 6-month COVID-19 infection incidence was lower among matched patients with ‘therapeutic’ (0.50–1.00) versus ‘subtherapeutic’ (0.05–0.50) lithium levels (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.82, 95% CI 0.69–0.97, P = 0.017) and among patients with ‘therapeutic’ lithium levels versus matched patients using valproate (HR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.67–0.92, P = 0.0023). Lower rates of infection were observed for both new COVID-19 diagnoses and positive polymerase chain reaction tests, regardless of underlying psychiatric diagnosis and vaccination status.

已提出锂的抗病毒作用，但从未针对 2019 冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 进行过研究。我们使用 26 554 名在大流行期间记录了血清锂水平的患者的电子健康记录，表明匹配的“治疗性”（0.50-1.00）患者与“亚治疗性”（0.05-1.00）患者的 6 个月 COVID-19 感染发生率较低。 0.50) 锂水平（风险比 (HR) = 0.82, 95% CI 0.69–0.97, P = 0.017）以及具有“治疗性”锂水平的患者与使用丙戊酸盐的匹配患者（HR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.67–0.92, P = 0.0023）。无论潜在的精神病学诊断和疫苗接种状况如何，新的 COVID-19 诊断和阳性聚合酶链反应测试的感染率都较低。