John Cade

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John Frederick Joseph Cade AO (born January 18, 1912 in Murtoa , † November 16, 1980 ) was an Australian psychiatrist . He discovered the calming effects of lithium carbonate in the treatment of bipolar disorder ( lithium therapy ) in 1948 .

Life

Origin and education

His father David was a general practitioner and served in Gallipoli during World War I and on the Western Front in France . Upon his return, Cade Sr. suffered from the war, sold his doctor's office and instead worked in a psychiatric ward. As a result, John and his brother Jack came into contact with these institutions as children.

John Cade enrolled at Scotch College in Melbourne in 1928. He then studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and graduated with Honors at the age of 21. He worked at the local St. Vincent's Hospital and until later in the Royal Children's Hospital, on a bilateral Pneumococcal - Pneumonia seriously ill. During his recovery he fell in love with one of the nurses who cared for him; he married her in 1937.

Second World War

Like his father before, John Cade left his young family to go to war for Australia. Contrary to his training as a psychiatrist, Cade served as a surgeon and traveled to Singapore on board the RMS Queen Mary in 1941 . When Singapore fell to Japan , Cade was held as a prisoner of war in Changi from 1942 to 1945 .

Discovery of the effect of lithium

After the end of the war, Cade stayed briefly in a Heidelberg clinic to recover . He then took up a position at the Bundoora Repatriation Mental Hospital in Melbourne. There he injected the urine of mentally ill patients into test animals, which died faster than the urine of healthy people. When he added lithium urate, it reduced the toxicity . The lithium ions appeared to have a calming effect. After testing them on himself, Cade began giving lithium citrate and / or lithium carbonate to some of his patients who were suffering from mania , schizophrenia, or melancholy . The effects were so pronounced that Cade suspected manias could be caused by a lithium deficiency. In the treatment of acute disorders, lithium was replaced by neuroleptics in the following years . It is still used today as a prophylaxis for mood disorders.

literature

  • Philip B. Mitchell, Dusan Hadzi-Pavlovic: John Cade and the discovery of lithium treatment for manic depressive illness. In: Medical Journal of Australia. Vol. 171 (1999), H. 5, pp. 262-264, PMID 10495760 .
  • Philip B. Mitchell: On the 50th anniversary of John Cade's discovery of the anti-manic effect of lithium. In: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. Vol. 33, H. 5 (October 1999), pp. 623-628, PMID 10544984 ( PDF ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Jack F. Cade: John Frederick Joseph Cade: family memories on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his discovery of the use of lithium in mania . In: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry . Vol. 33, No. 5, 1999, pp. 615-618. doi : 10.1080 / j.1440-1614.1999.00624.x . PMID 10544983 .
  2. ^ A b John Frederick Joseph Cade: Lithium salts in the treatment of psychotic excitement . In: Medical Journal of Australia . Vol. 2, No. 36, September 3, 1949, pp. 349-352. PMID 10885180 .
  3. ^ Bangen, Hans: History of the drug therapy of schizophrenia. Berlin 1992, page 71 ISBN 3-927408-82-4
personal data
SURNAME Cade, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cade, John Frederick Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Murtoa
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1980