Abstract
Although lithium’s serendipitous discovery as a medication for depression dates back
more than 200 years, the first scientific evidence that it prevents mania and depression
arose only in the 1960s. However, at that time there was a lack of knowledge about
how to administer and monitor lithium therapy safely and properly. The lithium clinics
in Dresden and Berlin were remarkably similar in their beginnings in the late 1960s
regarding patient numbers and scientific expertise without being aware of one another
due to the Iron Curtain separating Germany into a western and eastern part until 1990.
In what were initially lithium-care programs run independently from one another, the
lithium clinics embedded in academic settings in Dresden and Berlin represent a milestone
in the history of psychopharmacological treatment of affective disorders in Germany
and trailblazers for today’s lithium therapy. Nowadays, lithium’s clinical applications
are unquestioned, such as its use in strategies to prevent mood episodes and suicide,
and to treat depression. The extensively documented knowledge of lithium treatment
is the fruit of more than 50 years of observing disease courses and of studying side
effects and influencing factors of lithium prophylaxis. Its safe and proper administration—in
determining the correct indication, baseline and follow-up examinations, recommended
dosages, monitoring, or the management of side effects—is well established. Subsequently,
both national and international guidelines continue recommending lithium as the gold
standard in treating patients with unipolar and bipolar disorders.
Key words
lithium - history of lithium care - lithium clinics - affective disorder - prevention
of suicide
