About the Authors

Tom Bschor

bschor@mailbox.tu-dresden.de

Affiliations Department of Psychiatry, Schlosspark-Clinic, Berlin, Germany, Department of Psychiatry, Technical University of Dresden, University Hospital, Dresden, Germany, International Group for the Study of Lithium Treated Patients (IGSLI), www.igsli.org

Dirk Ritter

Affiliation Department of Psychiatry, Technical University of Dresden, University Hospital, Dresden, Germany

Patricia Winkelmann

Affiliation Department of Psychiatry, Technical University of Dresden, University Hospital, Dresden, Germany

Sebastian Erbe

Affiliation Department of Psychiatry, Schlosspark-Clinic, Berlin, Germany

Manfred Uhr

Affiliation Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany

Marcus Ising

Affiliation Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany

Ute Lewitzka

Affiliations Department of Psychiatry, Technical University of Dresden, University Hospital, Dresden, Germany, IWK Health Centre/Dalhousie University, Mood Disorder Research Clinic, Halifax, Canada, International Group for the Study of Lithium Treated Patients (IGSLI), www.igsli.org

Competing Interests

Over the past five years TB has received honoraria for speaking from Lilly, AstraZeneca, Esparma, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi-Aventis, Servier, and Lundbeck, and has accepted reimbursements of travelling expenses to congresses from AstraZeneca and Lilly. Over the past five years SE has accepted reimbursements of travelling expenses to congresses from AstraZeneca. Over the past five years MI has received grant support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and has been consultant to MSD Merck, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, United States of America. UL has received honoraria for speaking from AstraZeneca and has accepted reimbursements of travelling expenses to congresses from AstraZeneca and Lundbeck. The authors DR, PW and MU – except for income received from their primary employer – have received no financial support or compensation from any individual or corporate entity over the past five years for research or professional service. The authors declare for all authors that there are no personal financial holdings that could be perceived as constituting a potential conflict of interest. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TB UL DR. Performed the experiments: TB UL DR PW SE. Analyzed the data: MI MU DR TB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MU MI TB UL DR. Wrote the paper: TB.