You want to put what in the water?

Many researchers, organisations and governments are looking for a way to improve mental health during the pandemic. This isn't it.

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What with presidents pondering the powers of ingesting bleach and daily examples of rampant covidiocy abounding, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for The Back Page to uncover fresh gems of really standout barking moonbat madness.

Difficult, but not impossible.

Take, for example, an allegedly serious proposal from a group of UK boffins to reduce suicide rates: lace the local drinking water with lithium.

Sorry… did you just say lithium? In the drinking water?

But it all makes perfect sense if you peruse recent research published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.  

How so? Well, it seems some drinking water supplies already contain low levels of naturally occurring lithium. What’s more, scientists from a cohort of UK universities have identified a link between those communities with the natural lithium in the water and lower rates of suicide.

So why not pop some of the mood-stabilising drug in the water supplies of communities which have a high risk of suicide, they suggest?

“In these unprecedented times of COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent increase in the incidence of mental health conditions, accessing ways to improve community mental health and reduce the incidence of anxiety, depression and suicide is ever more important,” Anjum Memon, lead author and epidemiology chair at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said in a media release.

Full marks for acknowledging a genuine public health issue. Pity about the apparent total disregard for medical ethics.

Apart from there being no consensus on what an ideal water-supply dose of lithium might be, and how it might differentially affect the camels and the chuggers among us, the idea of conducting a randomised community trial of a such a drug on a largely unsuspecting populace should be well beyond the pale… surely?

If you see something stupid, say something stupid… Send your bright public health ideas for The Back Page to penny@medicalrepublic.com.au