Recurrent Depressions and the Lithium Ion
WILLIAM L. DYSON M.D.1, and
MYER MENDELSON M.D.2
1 Departments of psychiatry and surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104
2 Department of psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104
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.
