March Book Club Meeting: Finding Sanity by Greg de Moore and Ann Westmore
31 March @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm UTC+10
Tuesday 31 March from 17:30 in the Members Bar
Join us for an insightful conversation as we explore the first biography of the groundbreaking Australian doctor who discovered the first pharmacological treatment for mental illness.
For most of human history, mental illness was largely untreatable. Sufferers lived their lives, if they survived, moving in and out of asylums with little hope of lasting recovery.
In 1948, that began to change. An Australian doctor and recently returned prisoner of war, working alone in a disused kitchen, began experimenting with a treatment for one of mankind’s most challenging conditions, manic depression, now known as bipolar disorder. That doctor was John Cade, and in that small kitchen, he stirred up what would become a medical breakthrough.
John Cade discovered lithium, a treatment that remains the gold standard for bipolar disorder. It has transformed and saved countless lives around the world.
Lithium is often described as the penicillin story of mental health, the first effective medication discovered for the treatment of mental illness, and without doubt one of Australia’s greatest mental health achievements.
We look forward to welcoming members to the Club for what promises to be a thought-provoking evening.
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