Little blue antidepressants behind Abraham Lincoln’s wild temper
By ANITuesday, March 23, 2010
LONDON - The reason behind Abraham Lincoln’s popular rage may be the little blue antidepressants pills he used to intake.
Researchers at the Royal Society of Chemistry have found that the medicine meant to treat the “cave of gloom” contained up to 120 times the acceptable daily intake of mercury.
Mercury is linked to violent temper, apart from problems such as nausea, vomiting, dehydration and diarrhoea, reports The Telegraph.
The late President’s aides have described his sudden spurts of fury.
A contemporary revealed that he was once so angry that he grabbed a former aide and shook him “until his teeth chattered”.
Another described his face in anger as “lurid with majestic and terrifying wrath”.
However, Lincoln quit taking the pills at the outset of the American Civil War in 1861 because they “made him cross”.
His calmness under pressure during the conflict had apparently surprised many. (ANI)
