Have you ever questioned the reality of your feelings? Have you ever questioned why sometimes you are the life of the party, entertaining people with your witty commentary, making every one laugh and yet somehow in just a couple of hours you are shy, tired and feeling an emotion that cripples your strength? According to the world health organization an estimated 45 million people around the world experience something similar, perhaps even in a greater magnitude than what any of us can comprehend. These people are diagnosed with a mental illness known as bipolar disorder. Now with medical treatment, people with bipolar disorder can lead productive and fulfilling lives, however it is important to understand that this would not be possible without Dr. John Cade and his discovery of the first ‘mood normalizer’, lithium.
Formerly known as manic depression or manic depressive illness, bipolar disorder causes unusual and unpredictable changes in mood, energy, concentration and the ability to carry out day to day tasks. People suffering from bipolar disorder experience severe and crippling emotional states that occur for an extended period of time like days or weeks, often referred to as mood episodes. In the first half of the twentieth century, most doctors believed that people with chronic mental illness had a disease that was largely hereditary and involved brain abnormality. Electro shock was considered to be the primary treatment. Patients were often restrained and highly sedated during their maniac stages, almost always confined to the hospitals due to development of suicidal tendencies.
Because of his upbringing on the grounds of a mental asylum, John Cade grew up among people with severe mental illness, through which he developed an empathetic approach to the needs of the mentally ill. Later following in his father’s footsteps he opted to join psychiatry. It was at Beechworth mental hospital where Cade began his career in psychiatric research.
John Cade was what his close acquaintances would describe as “one of observation.” He was often quick to notice things that others would not. It was his empathetic approach towards patients that led him to observe that most of them bruised easily. He often wondered if excessive force was being used on them, but later discovered that most patients were suffering from vitamin C deficiency. A situation he sought to rectify immediately.
In 1939, Cade joined the Australian military and was held as a prisoner of war in the infamous Changi prison. His powerlessness to help the prisoners suffering from severe PTSD and chronic depression further enlightened him on the lack of definitive treatment for the mentally ill. While performing autopsies, Cade’s belief of bodily changes resulting in mental disturbances was solidified. He believed that the patients suffering from bipolar disorder may lack certain key chemical substances or may have some unwanted ones in their bodies. Thus he began testing patient’s urine, in which he found an additional component of uric acid which is not seen in normal people. He began testing this acidic urine on guinea pigs which proved to be lethal in animals. With no access to sophisticated chemical analysis and on the basis of a largely intuitive or observational theory, he conducted experiments through which discovery of lithium carbonate as a possible cure was made. Lithium carbonate reduced toxicity in the patient’s urine. After testing it on guinea pigs, he found that lithium carbonate seemed to calm these balls of energy.
Later he administered the drug on himself for safety, and then began dosing his patients with lithium and the miraculous lithium therapy came into existence. His patients began showing significant improvement. Bill Brand was a patient at the asylum in Bundoora for more than 30 years. Over the duration of two months, this infamous patient was seemingly sane and left the hospital. However in the coming years, Cade himself abandoned the experiment, when one of his patients died due to a high dose of lithium.
Further, Edward Trautner measured the lithium level in blood of patients using flame photometry and confirmed Cade’s observation. He also identified the safe concentration of lithium in blood. Due to the efforts of a Danish psychiatrist- Mogens Schou who, intrigued by Cade’s claim, performed experiments that demonstrated lithium’s effectiveness. He also coined the term mood normalizer which explained that lithium was acting specifically on a disease rather than a symptom. Baastrup and Schou jointly conducted lithium trials and saw significant prophylactic activity against major psychosis. In bipolar disorder, atrophy and neuronal /glial stress is observed. There is a decrease in the gray matter volume in brain areas implicated in emotional processing and cognitive gyrus. When treated with lithium therapy, most studies find that there is an increase in gray matter volume in areas that process emotions. Although there is much debate regarding the use of lithium to treat bipolar disorder, this is no denying that lithium paved the way for other antipsychotic medication and introduced a new approach to the treatment of mental illness. Cade’s discovery prevented millions of suicides and saved the world economy from hundreds of million dollars in hospitalization costs thus becoming a scientific discovery that effectively tackled an issue that affected the society at large.
References:
Lithium: A Doctor, a Drug, and a Breakthrough Walter A. Brown Liveright (2019)
https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/bipolar-disorders/what-are-bipolar-disorders
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders
https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/93947
Written by Priyanka Tiwari
Bachelors in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Savitribai Phule Pune University
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/genzmedicolgy/
Written beautifully!
Loved it!!
Very nice
Amazing!
Congratulations Piu & All the best 💐
Nice article…beat wishes
Wow!..Loved it dude!
Well said. Keep it up
Very good information and research .
Awesome👌👌👌
Well said. Keep it up
great work
This is awesome Priyanka…
All the best..
👍👍👍
Lithium
‘ Sir John Cade ‘
Proper light is thrown upon
his inner empethetic voice,
fore sighted intelligence, important events in his research journey, his success and failure also.
Based on his studies, how other scientists enhanced their research, is also mentioned…. Which shows the ongoing process of research is very well understood by the writer.
A gentle touch to neurological terms like ‘ neurotransmitters ‘, ‘ grey matter lessoning’, glial stress’ etc catches attention to psychiatry and brain function correlation specifically.
Nobody could encircle the boundaries of empire of ‘Mind’, and in this sense its difficult to define the vast scope of its abilities and hence offcourse it’s disabilities / disorders/ diseases. Its like definition of ‘zero’ or ‘ infinity ‘.
Hence to treat mental illness and that too with behavioural observations only and his own intuitive power mainly, shows Dr Cade’s uniqueness. His research could establish the relation between physical bodie’s deficiency and its effects on metaphysical ‘mind’, which ultimately turns into mental diseases, was a ‘million dollars ‘ turning point which changed the treatment approach totally in due course.
During the total period of world war one, spenish flu pandemic and world war two, millions of people died in these wars or pendamic. But more than those millions, people got mentally sick / diseased, as after effects of those catastrophis. And in these circumstances, Dr. Cade’s research saved mankind not only by saving millions of people from suicide, and saving million dollars in hospitalisation charges, but by giving ‘Hope’ and bringing them back to normal productive life. Today’s modern and sofisticated world with ultra modern technologies must be greatful to his research.
A real great hero for all time…. !!!
and
the girl, who put forth his story in front of the world….
A great admiration to your overall viewing angle towards his research and experiments, and it’s usefulness towards mankind.
It shows your intelligence and inclination towards such type of research….. I wish you every success Priyanka….!!!!!
Proper light is thrown upon
his inner empethetic voice,
fore sighted intelligence, important events in his research journey, his success and failure also.
Based on his studies, how other scientists enhanced their research, is also mentioned…. Which shows the ongoing process of research is very well understood by the writer.
A gentle touch to neurological terms like ‘ neurotransmitters ‘, ‘ grey matter lessoning’, glial stress’ etc catches attention to psychiatry and brain function correlation specifically.
Nobody could encircle the boundaries of empire of ‘Mind’, and in this sense its difficult to define the vast scope of its abilities and hence offcourse it’s disabilities / disorders/ diseases. Its like definition of ‘zero’ or ‘ infinity ‘.
Hence to treat mental illness and that too with behavioural observations only and his own intuitive power mainly, shows Dr Cade’s uniqueness. His research could establish the relation between physical bodie’s deficiency and its effects on metaphysical ‘mind’, which ultimately turns into mental diseases, was a ‘million dollars ‘ turning point which changed the treatment approach totally in due course.
During the total period of world war one, spenish flu pandemic and world war two, millions of people died in these wars or pendamic. But more than those millions, people got mentally sick / diseased, as after effects of those catastrophis. And in these circumstances, Dr. Cade’s research saved mankind not only by saving millions of people from suicide, and saving million dollars in hospitalisation charges, but by giving ‘Hope’ and bringing them back to normal productive life. Today’s modern and sofisticated world with ultra modern technologies must be greatful to his research.
A real great hero for all time…. !!!
and
the girl, who put forth his story in front of the world….
A great admiration to your overall viewing angle towards his research and experiments, and it’s usefulness towards mankind.
It shows your intelligence and inclination towards such type of research….. I wish you every success Priyanka….!!!!!
Very informative article !!!
Good one!
All the best
Nice article