Abstracts fra Bibliotek for Læger 3/2005

 

Oversigtsartikel: Lithiumpioneren Mogens Schou – et halvt århundrede med lithium.

Johan Schioldann:

The lithium pioneer Mogens Schou – half a century with lithium.

Bibl Læger 2005; 197: 209–16.

In the late 19th century, the Danish brothers, Carl and Fritz Lange were the first to use lithium systematically in the treatment and prophylaxis of “periodical depressions” – by Erik Strömgren named “the old Danish lithium treatment”. The Lange brothers believed that these depressions were caused by uric acid diathesis. However, with the abandonment of this concept as fallacious during the first decades of the 20th century, lithium treatment fell into oblivion. In 1949 the Australian psychiatrist, John Cade, heralded the modern lithium treatment with his seminal paper on the anti-manic effect of lithium – “one of the major medical discoveries of the 20th century”. In 1954 Mogens Schou and his associates at Risskov, Denmark, among them Strömgren, confirmed these claims in the first placebo-controlled, double-blind trial in psychopharmacology, designed by Schou. The anti-manic effect of lithium became evidence based. Over the next decade, Schou introduced lithium into international psychiatry. Subsequently, in 1967, preceded by sporadic observations by G.P. Hartigan of Canterbury, England, Poul Christian Baastrup, Schou’s countryman, and Schou himself – independently of one another – of lithium having a prophylactic effect in recurrent affective disorders (bipolar and unipolar), Schou and Baastrup could publish their systematic but open trial which bore this out. However, their findings were to spark fierce controversy in the international medical press, spearheaded by Michael Shepherd and Barry Blackwell of Maudsley, London. Finally, in 1970, Schou and Baastrup confirmed the observations in a controlled double-blind randomized trial that in the opinion of Paul Grof of Ottawa was “unparalleled in psychiatry”. Authorities on manic-depressive illness such as Fred Goodwin and Kay Jamison went on to characterize this trail-blazing discovery as “one of the most important advances in modern psychiatry”. Thus, also the prophylactic effects of lithium in recurrent affective disorders became evidencebased.

Having revolutionized the treatment of manic-depressive illness to the benefit of millions throughout the world and thus undoubtedly saved many from committing suicide, Cade, Schou and Baastrup – “the three fathers of modern lithium therapy” – have inscribed their names in the history of medicine.

 

Originalartikel: Min rejse med lithium. Selvbiografiske noter.

Mogens Schou:

My journey with lithium.

Bibl Læger 2005; 197: 217–28.

I was born 1918 in Copenhagen and worked in psychiatry and experimental biology. From 1952 until my retirement as professor of biological psychiatry in 1988 I have studied lithium treatment of mood disorders. My journey has had high points and low points. From confirmation of an antimanic action of lithium to observations indicating a recurrence-preventive action, to a non-blind, prolonged trial showing such an effect, to skepticism and criticism from England, to a double-blind, randomized and placebo-controlled trial that documented the prophylactic action, to confirmation in many countries and global acceptance, to strong and at times unfair competition from the pharmaceutical industry, and to recent revival of interest in and use of lithium. Lithium has been marveously kind to me.

 

Genoptryk af originalartikel: Behandling af maniske psykoser med lithium.

M. Schou, N. Juel-Nielsen, E. Strömgren & H. Voldby

 

Essay: Lægen og loyalitet.

Niels Høiby

 

Essay: Forskeren og loyalitet.

Jens F. Rehfeld

 

Boganmeldelse: Mathias Winther. Bibliotheca Danorum Medica or Full Conspectus of Medical and Related Treatises in Denmark, Norway, [Schleswig] and Holstein down to the Year 1832.

Søren Bak-Jensen

 

Boganmeldelse: Hans Ole Hein & Finn Gyntelberg. Om sygdom og arbejde af Bernardino Ramazzini, arbejdsmedicinens fader. Kirsten Jungersen

 

Forsidebillede: Fra venstre: Poul Christian Baastrup, John Cade og Mogens Schou i Risskov 1972.