Early North American research on lithium

Research and clinical interest in lithium in the USA lagged behind that in Europe, largely because of the experience of deaths due to lithium in cardi ac patients. The first American report on lithium was published in 1960 by Sam Gershon, the Australian psychiatrist who had undertaken lithium studies in Melbourne in conjunction with the physiologist Trautner. Major USA clin ical trials originated in the 1960s; and the clinical significance of lithi um was recognised in a special section in the American Journal of Psychiatr y in 1968. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of lithium fo r control of manic episodes was finally given in 1970.