In the 1950s, a young Danish psychiatrist named Mogens Schou staked his career — and his family — on a mineral most of his colleagues dismissed as dangerous nonsense. This is the story of how lithium went from fringe curiosity to the gold standard for bipolar disorder, and the bitter scientific battle that nearly derailed it.
Before lithium became a cornerstone of psychiatry, it was in soda, spa water, and salt shakers. Trace lithium’s journey from Victorian health fad to life-saving mood stabilizer, and discover why the uric acid theory that launched it may be making a comeback.
Does money lead to happiness? What kind of stress causes depression? Why the FDA change their requirements for new drug approvals? And what happened between Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell that launched an enterprise of abuse?