jul 1, 1883 - Lithium in psychiatry: Neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell recommended lithium bromide as an anticonvulsant and a hypnotic

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In an early psychiatric reference to lithium in 1870, Philadelphia neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell recommended lithium bromide as an anticonvulsant and a hypnotic (9). Mitchell later came out for the bromides, preferably lithium bromide, for “general nervousness” (10). In 1871, William Hammond, professor of Diseases of the Mind and Nervous System at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York, became the first physician to prescribe lithium for mania: “Latterly I have used the bromide of lithium in cases of acute mania, and have more reason to be satisfied with it than with any other medicine calculated to diminish the amount of blood in the cerebral vessels, and to calm any nervous excitement that may be present” (11).

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