Lithium Psychiatry : Therapeutic Efficacy, Side Effects and Practical Issues

Honourable members of the Chair, distinguished guests, members of the Indian Psychiatric Society, ladies and gentlemen. I feel privileged today in addressing you on the occasion of delivering of prestigious Tilak Venkoba Rao Oration. I am thankful to the Indian Psychiatric Society for providing me with this opportunity. I pay humble respect to late Tilak Venkoba Rao in whose memory Professors Venkoba Rao and Parvathi Devi instituted this award honouring both, the Society and its young members. Lithium, the subject I have chosen today to speak on, has been dear to both, Professor Venkoba Rao and Professor Parvathi Devi as is evident from large number of reseacrch publications on lithium in scientific journals by them, I only hope that 1 am able to do justice to the topic. I must place on record my gratitude to Professor N. N. Wig and Professor R. Srinivasa Murthy for initiating and encouraging me to do whatever little I have been •ible to do on the subject of lithium ion.