page_title: Perry Cossart Baird Jr.
hierarchical_section_title: Perry Cossart Baird Jr.
caption_attribution_description: English: Photographic portrait of Perry Cossart Baird Jr. 1928, the year of his graduation from Harvard Medical School.
context_page_description: Perry Cossart Baird Jr. was an American physician, who while suffering from bipolar disorder was also trying to find the cause of the disease. During this time, the prevailing theory was that mental illness was psychological, not physiological. He was the first person to search for a biochemical basis for mania, by injecting adrenalectomized animals with the blood of manic patients.
  In April 1944, Baird's article Biochemical Component of the Manic-Depressive Psychosis was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. These experiments predated John Cade's experiments in Australia in 1948, which led to the discovery of lithium as an effective treatment for mental illness.
  Baird's research was halted many times due to his own manic episodes and the work was never completed. During his incarceration in Westborough State Hospital and Baldpate Hospital, Baird wrote a manuscript of his experiences, titled “Echoes from a Dungeon Cell”, detailing the harsh treatment of mental patients at that time.
  In 2015, his research work and the manuscript he wrote while institutionalised were published in a book, He Wanted The Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr.
context_section_description: Perry Cossart Baird Jr. (1903–1959) was an American physician, who while suffering from bipolar disorder (then known as manic depressive psychosis) was also trying to find the cause of the disease. During this time, the prevailing theory was that mental illness was psychological, not physiological.  He was the first person to search for a biochemical basis for mania, by injecting adrenalectomized animals with the blood of manic patients.
  In April 1944, Baird's article Biochemical Component of the Manic-Depressive Psychosis was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. These experiments predated John Cade's experiments in Australia in 1948, which led to the discovery of lithium as an effective treatment for mental illness.
  Baird's research was halted many times due to his own manic episodes and the work was never completed. During his incarceration in Westborough State Hospital and Baldpate Hospital, Baird wrote a manuscript of his experiences, titled “Echoes from a Dungeon Cell”, detailing the harsh treatment of mental patients at that time.
  In 2015, his research work and the manuscript he wrote while institutionalised were published in a book, He Wanted The Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird and His Daughter’s Quest to Know Him, written by his daughter, Mimi Baird. Plan B Entertainment has optioned the book for a film and Tony Kushner is writing the screenplay.
caption: Baird in 1928, the year of his graduation from Harvard Medical School.
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