Lithium in manic-depressive illness: plusses, pitfalls, and perspectives.

Prophylactic lithium treatment of manic-depressive illness offers advantages to patient and family, to society, to the psychiatrist, and to research. The treatment must be administered in accordance with certain guidelines in order to provide maximal efficacy and minimal risk. Research on the mode of action of lithium and its prophylactic alternatives may serve to elucidate metabolic disturbances in the brains of manic-depressive patients. It might also one day reveal biological factors which govern mood, activity and mental speed. Could such knowledge be misused to manipulate mood, one's own or that of others?