TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION
ONLY recently have scientist begun to understand how to effectively treat depression, one of the most common of mental disorders. Two scientists, John Cade of Australia and Mogens Schou of Denmark, have just received the 1974 Kittay International Award for their psychopharmacological work with lithium. The Kittay Foundation's medical director said : "Their combined discovery represents a revolutionary change in the treatment of an affective psychosis, and has also changed our concepts for understanding the nature of mental illness. For the first time, it has been shown that a condition which was previously considered environmental is biochemical."
Lithium salts have been available to physicians for more than a century, but their toxic effects kept them in disuse. Then Dr. Cade found that injections of lithium citrate protected guinea pigs from induced convulsions and concluded that it might be useful in treating manic excitement in humans. But doctors were still reluctant to use lithium until Dr. Schou and his collaborators proved its efficacy, free of toxicity, in the treatment of depression, and also demonstrated that continued lithium therapy protects against recurrence of the disorder.
-Science News