Lithium maintenance: 1. A standard education programme for patients.

A videotape lecture and written hand-out containing factual information about lithium were given to 30 attenders at a lithium clinic. A further 30 patients acted as a control group and were not given the programme until later in the study. The educational programme resulted in substantial and significant increases in patient knowledge about lithium, such that knowledge increased from a baseline comparable with that of social workers to a level similar to that of community psychiatric nurses. Patients' attitudes to lithium also became more favourable after education.