Recurrent Depressions and the Lithium Ion

Abstract

Lithium was successfully used to treat five patients with recurrent depressions, three of whom had typical manic-depressive illnesses. Their clinical and also their characteristic subjective responses to lithium establish a very suggestive relationship between illnesses previously believed on observational grounds alone to be related. Some term such as "lithium-responders" might appropriately delineate this group of patients.