Lithium: The Cinderella Drug

This breakthrough treatment costs a fraction of more expensive, less effective drugs

Lithium is an oddity. A naturally occurring mineral, it breaks the mold of psychiatric drugs—cheap, effective, and likely underprescribed. Bjoern Wylezich/Shutterstock

Dr. Walter Brown begins his 2020 book “Lithium, a Doctor, a Drug and a Breakthrough,” by asking, “What do Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Ernest Hemingway have in common?” The answer is bipolar disorder, previously known as manic-depressive illness.

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness characterized by extreme mood swings, including extreme excitement (mania) phases and extreme depressive feelings.