A Double-Blind Trial of Long-Term Lithium Therapy in Mental Defectives

The therapeutic effect of lithium in mania was first described by Cade (1949), but the possibility that lithium could have a prophylactic action in recurrent affective disorders was not suggested until some years later (Hartigan, 1963; Baastrup, 1964). The early studies of the prophylactic action of lithium were open trials, in which both investigator and patient knew that the patient was receiving the drug. More recently, controlled double-blind studies have confirmed these early reports (Melia, 1970; Coppen et al., 1971; Cundall et al., 19712).