title: The early European lithium studies.
abstract: Cade's discovery of lithium's antimanic effect soon became known in Europe and was confirmed by a Danish controlled trial. The same investigators discovered a prophylactic action of lithium against both manic and depressive recurrences, which was confirmed by a Swiss-Czech-Danish cooperative trial. The evidence of these studies was met with skepticism based on methodological speculations, but a Danish randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of discontinuation design established the prophylactic action of lithium, as did a number of European controlled trials of start design and discontinuation design. The review ends with personal memories of John Cade.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Psychiatry, Aarhus University Hospital, Risskov, Denmark. sch@post9.tele.dk
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schou
mesh_terms: D018692:Antimanic Agents / Q000266:history* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D016651:Lithium Carbonate / Q000266:history* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000266:history*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D018692:Antimanic Agents; D016651:Lithium Carbonate