Lithium therapy for mania
Litio como tratamiento del trastorno bipolar
- Date
- 1949 · confidence high
- Place
- Repatriation Hospital, Bundoora, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Credited to
- John Cade
- People
- 👤 John Cade1912–1980
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Cade observed that lithium salts calmed guinea pigs and then chronically manic patients. It was the first effective drug for a major psychiatric disorder and remains in use.
Its use was delayed by serious cases of toxicity and became widespread after Mogens Schou's trials in Denmark (1954).
What it led to
- modern psychopharmacology
- mood stabilisers