Mental health affects people of all ages and has been a medical concern since early 1950. Cases of mental illness were still rampant, and practitioners applied various methods to combat them. Although some may seem weird means today, they were a quick solution in that era.
Trephination
This is one of the earliest forms of interventions applied for mental health. It involved using an auger or saw to remove a small portion of the skull. The creating of a hole is believed to have exposed the Dura matter without interfering with the underlying material, which helps to reduce the pain of migraines, epileptic seizures, and mental disorders since it reduced pressure (Miles, 2018). It was also used in cases of head injury to relieve pain due to physical damage to the head. It was used as relieve for medical disorders since the people believed that the psychological issues stemmed from psychical alterations.
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Insulin Coma Therapy
Introduced in 1927, this technique involved physicians deliberately putting the patient into a low blood sugar coma since studies had shown that large amounts of insulin in the blood altered the functioning of the brain. During the therapy, which lasted one to four hours, patients were given a shot of insulin that made them lose consciousness, which was assumed a form of reprogramming for the brain. However, this came with the danger of patients experiencing prolonged coma (Grob, 2019). Similar to insulin was also Metrazole, a drug used in the place of insulin. It was rumored that schizophrenia and convulsions could not occur at the same time, so patients were given this drug to test this hypothesis. However, the effects were severe, as it caused extreme convulsions that were violent to the point of patients getting hurt. Thus, electroconvulsive therapy was introduced as a safer alternative.
Electroconvulsive therapy
This method was used in cases where other methods have failed for patients with severe depression, was bipolar or had psychiatric disorders. It involved the use of electric current to shock the brain by creating waves therein. These high current waves resonate through the mind and reawaken it from depression, bipolar and psychiatric disorders, which could rescue the patient from extreme actions such as self-harm, suicide or killing others (Cook, 2018). However, electro conclusive therapy is not a medication for mental illness; rather it proves to be effective when used in conjunction with other solutions .
Lobotomies
Walter Freeman introduced lobotomies in the United States, which involved interfering with neural connections in the prefrontal cortex area of the brain. According to Caruso & Sheehan (2017), it was believed that the frontal cortex is responsible for mental illness, thus destroying it meant getting rid of the illness. However, lobotomies did not only stop the sickness but also interfered with memory and caused a change in personalities because it interfered with emotional intelligence and social skills. By the time they were banned, 50,000 people had undergone the operation.
Asylums
People with mental disorders were isolated and kept in camps where all others inside there had the same problem. The conditions inside these places were adverse, and they were subjected to mistreatment and physical harm. An American journalist, Nelly Bly, acting as an undercover agent, brought into light the inhuman treatment of people in asylums and the effect it had on their health. According to Goffman (2017), those isolated in asylums did not recover from mental illness but became violent and withdrawn.
Conclusion
The interventions for mental conditions before 1950 instilled more pain to the patients, and most of them were banned with improvement in psychiatry studies. Although they provided temporary relief, the long-term effects were worse, such that it would have been better to let the mental illness stay. Improvement in technology has brought significant relief in the mental health sector.
References
Caruso, J. P., & Sheehan, J. P. (2017). Psychosurgery, ethics, and media: a history of Walter Freeman and the lobotomy. Neurosurgical focus , 43 (3), E6.
Cook, V. (2018). A Shocking Solution: Electroconvulsive Therapy and its Effects on Depression and Other Mental Illnesses. BU Well , 3 (1), 6.
Goffman, E. (2017). Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates . Routledge.
Grob, G. N. (2019). Mental illness and American society, 1875-1940 (Vol. 5316). Princeton University Press.
Miles, L. (2018). LibGuides: PSY 142-Abnormal Psychology: History of Mental Illness.
