Old but still gold: Lithium in stabilizing the mood

Many, if not all, great discoveries in psychopharmacology resulted, as Donald Klein noted,[1] “from chance observations of unexpected clinical benefits or as inadvertent outcomes of blind pharmaceutical searches.” One of such discoveries, by Cade J[2] in the late 1940's, was the calming anti-manic effect of lithium. Cade first noticed a calming effect of lithium in guinea pigs. He decided to test lithium in various mental illnesses, including mania and melancholia (interestingly, he ingested lithium himself first to ensure its safety in humans). The calming effect of lithium in mania was very robust, and Cade even speculated that mania may be caused by some lithium deficiency. His seminal discovery ultimately led to a revolutionary new approach we not only had and have an agent to treat mania and manic-depressive illness (what we call today a bit strangely bipolar illness), but we got an agent that is useful to prevent future episodes of this illness and to stabilize fluctuations of mood. However, one should note that William Hammond first reported on the usefulness of lithium in manic states as early as in 1871, which has not been mentioned in the textbooks.[3]