John Frederick Joseph Cade AO[1][2][3] (18 January 1912 – 16 November 1980) was an Australian psychiatrist who in 1948 discovered the effects of lithium carbonate as a mood stabilizer in the treatment of bipolar disorder, then known as manic depression.

At a time when the standard treatments for psychosis were electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomy, lithium had the distinction of being the first effective medication available to treat a mental illness.

Over the next 25 years, Dr Cade Sr became medical superintendent at several Victorian mental hospitals, namely Sunbury, Beechworth and Mont Park.

[4] Like his father before him, Cade left his young family to fight for Australia in the Armed Forces in World War II.

[6] It was at an unused pantry in Bundoora that he conducted crude experiments which led to the discovery of lithium as a treatment of bipolar disorder.

Since he had no sophisticated analytical equipment these experiments mostly consisted of injecting urine from mentally ill patients into the abdomen of guinea pigs.

[8] While Cade's results appeared highly promising, side effects of lithium in some cases led to non-compliance.

Moreover, as a naturally occurring chemical, lithium salt could not be patented, meaning that its manufacturing and sales were not considered commercially viable.

Two years later, at the request of the Mental Hygiene Authority which was planning to remodel Royal Park, he visited Britain for six months to inspect psychiatric institutions.

On his return, he introduced modern facilities and replaced the rather authoritarian approach to patient care with a lot more personal and informal style that included group therapy.

Concerned at the number of alcohol-related cases, he supported voluntary admission to aid early detection and later proposed the use of large doses of thiamine in the treatment of alcoholism.

[12] John Cade died of oesophageal cancer[4] at Fitzroy on 16 November 1980, and is buried at Yan Yean Cemetery in Whittlesea.

[13] In 1980 the first John Cade memorial lecture was delivered by Mogens Schou at the congress in Jerusalem of the Collegian International Psychopharmacologium.