1949

John Cade’s initial report on success of lithium in treating “psychotic excitement” in Medical J. of Australia has no impact, owing to his obscurity and concern over lithium toxicity. Lithium treatment received major boost from Mogens Schon (Denmark), who confirmed its therapeutic value in what may have been the first double-blind psychopharm study, published in 1954. Schon et al.’s subsequent double-blind study, published in Lancet in 1970, finally put the critics to rest; Lithium received FDA approval (but only for treatment of mania) in 1970 (Valenstein, 45-49).