For most of human history, mental illness has been largely untreatable. Sufferers lived their lives - if they survived - in and out of asylums, accumulating life's wreckage around them.
In 1948, all that changed when an Australian doctor and recently returned prisoner of war, working alone in a disused kitchen, set about an experimental treatment for one of the scourges of mankind - manic depression, or bipolar disorder. That doctor was John Cade and in that small kitchen he stirred up a miracle.
John Cade discovered a treatment that has become the gold standard for bipolar disorder - lithium. It has stopped more people from committing suicide than a thousand help lines.
Lithium is the penicillin story of mental health - the first effective medication discovered for the treatment of a mental illness - and it is, without doubt, Australia's greatest mental health story.
By:
Greg de Moore, Ann Westmore Producer:
Ben Johnson Read by:
Paul English Imprint: Bolinda Publishing Country of Publication: Australia Edition: Unabridged ISBN:9781489379252 ISBN 10: 1489379258 Publication Date:28 February 2017 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:CD-Audio Publisher's Status: Active