Lithium: The Oldest Specific Psychotropic Medication

Discovered in 1817,1 lithium originally was used to treat gout because uric acid deposits in gouty phalanges dissolved in lithium carbonate.2 When it was seen to be ineffective, lithium became regarded as an "old and flourishing blunder in medicinal chemistry."1

Interest in the gout connection intensified again toward the end of the 19th century. Sir Alfred Garrod asserted that "gout retroceding to the head" caused mood disorders,1 and his colleagues proposed that mania was caused by high uric acid levels.2 A half-century later, Australian psychiatrist John Cade tested this hypothesis by administering lithium urate to guinea pigs. When the compound seemed instead to have a sedating effect, Cade assumed that lithium counteracted urate-induced…