Psychology and Psychiatry are relatively recent sciences that have fundamentally evolved in recent decades. Before the strict ethical code that we know today was imposed, doctors could conduct research with their patients and in some cases the consequences of their experiments were not exactly happy.
What are the strangest psychiatric treatments in history?
1. Insulin shock therapy
It all began in 1927, when an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist named Manfred Sakel committed medical negligence by applying a higher dose of insulin than recommended to a diabetic patient who also suffered from psychosis. He fell into a coma and when he came out of that state, the doctor was able to see a notable improvement in his mental faculties.
Without hesitation, he began to apply this treatment to other patients, especially those who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. The normal thing was to apply the injections six days a week, for a period of two months. The daily dose of insulin was gradually increased until coma occurred, at which point it began to be decreased.
After having caused between 50 and 60 comas, if the doctor considered that the patient had achieved maximum benefits, the treatment, which lasted two years, on average, was terminated.
Sakel claimed that the success rate of the treatment ranged between 80 and 90% so it soon spread to other clinics in the world but later doctors began to question the safety of the treatment as it often caused seizures and irreversible damage in the brain. In addition, it had a mortality rate of 4.9% and the improvement reported was temporary. In this way, insulin shock therapy fell into disuse.
2. Trepanation
It was a very ancient surgical procedure that was used mainly in religious rituals with the aim of freeing the person from the demons they carried inside and that were responsible for epileptic attacks, migraines and mental illnesses. On some occasions, the person kept the trepanned bone as an amulet to keep evil spirits away.
However, trepanation was not a technique typical of prehistory, it was practiced during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It is thought that at that time the survival rate was quite high and the risk of infections very low. In fact, according to archaeological data, trepanations were a fairly common procedure, especially among the wealthiest classes.
Was this an effective procedure?
Scientists have not yet been able to agree on the answer to this question, but some suggest that trepanation increases cerebral blood volume and, therefore, improves cerebral metabolism, just as cerebral vasodilators could do today. However, it is certainly not an appropriate procedure to treat psychiatric illnesses, although recently, in Utah, two men were convicted of trephining a woman to treat depression and chronic fatigue syndrome.
3. Lobotomy
It is a small incision through which the prefrontal area is separated from the rest of the brain so that people who are restless and violent are more docile. The technique was created in 1935 by the Portuguese psychiatrist and neurosurgeon Antonio Egas Moniz and also earned him a Nobel Prize in 1949. As its results were so promising, lobotomy began to be used in various places with the aim of containing psychosis and all those disorders that involve violent behavior.
The real problem began when lobotomy began to be used to treat undesirable behaviors, even in rebellious children and adolescents. Many people were not even informed that this procedure was going to be performed, even though it caused serious changes in personality and often affected the patient’s independence and autonomy. Among the many effects that lobotomy had was decreased cognition, reduced initiative, and marked detachment. It is as if the person’s emotions and will have been ripped away from them.
It is estimated that between the years 1940 and 1950, almost 20,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States and around 50,000 worldwide. Fortunately, with the introduction of antipsychotics this procedure began to disappear. Some of the most famous cases who underwent a lobotomy were: Rosemary Kennedy, the sister of President Kennedy, who was permanently disabled, the sister of the writer Tennessee Williams and the violinist Josef Hassid and the painter Sigrid Hjertén, who died after having undergoing the operation.
4. Mesmerism
This treatment owes its name to the Austrian doctor Franz Anton Mesmer, who began using magnets to alleviate mental illness. The idea of “animal magnetism” began to take shape when he witnessed an extraordinary cure of a patient who had magnets applied all over her body.
The idea itself came from Maximilian Hell, director of the Vienna Astronomical Observatory, but it led Mesmer to hypothesize that the key was not in the magnet but in the animal magnetism that it carried. Mesmer assumed that people acted like magnets, with two poles and illness would be the result of an imbalance. Therefore, it would be enough to expose the person to the magnetic influence to restore the lost homeostasis. Without hesitation he begins to experiment with patients.
What he did was apply magnets, one on the upper left side and another on the right, so that the fluid passed through the entire body in a closed circuit. He also tried to transmit the magnetic fluid through other objects, which is why he magnetized the water with which the sick had to bathe or drink, he also magnetized cups and plates, dresses, beds, mirrors and even some musical instruments so that they spread through his notes the healing virtue.
As if this were not enough, he also created his famous “health vats”, a wooden container in which two rows of bottles filled with magnetized water ran towards a steel bar fitted with movable conductive tips. The patient had to apply one of these tips to the painful region. He also used to sit the patients around this vat with their hands clasped to transmit the magnetism from one to another.
Little by little Mesmer became a famous person in Vienna because with his method he cured gout, convulsions, ringing in the ears, paralysis, stomach cramps, menstrual disorders, insomnia, liver pain and optical weakness. However, little by little he gained the idea that what was healing was not the magnets but the power of suggestion, so that this method fell into oblivion but gave rise to the appearance of hypnosis.
5. Vibrators for hysteria
Histrionic personality disorder did not always receive current treatment. In fact, in the early 1800s something quite different was recommended. It all started in New England, where masturbation was still considered blasphemy but the truth was that it was indicated as a treatment.
At that time, hysteria was a more common diagnosis than today since it was often applied indiscriminately to any disorder that showed symptoms of nervousness, insomnia, spasms, respiratory problems, irritability and lack of appetite or sexual desire. One day, doctors realized that vaginal stimulation caused relief from these symptoms and, without thinking twice, some dedicated themselves to giving these massages.
Until the end of the 19th century when the first electric vibrators appeared. The idea came from a British doctor named Joseph Mortimer Granville and it can be understood that it was a great relief to the doctors of the time. Of course, the first vibrators were very primitive but little by little they were developed and various models and sizes appeared. In 1918 they were even included in Sears catalogs and were offered as an addition to the purchase of other household appliances.
References:
Steck, A.J. (2010) Milestones in the development of neurology and psychiatry in Europe. Schweizer Archiv fur Neurologie und Psychiatrie; 161(3): 85–89.
Traetta, L. (2007) La forza che guarisce. Franz Anton Mesmer e la storia del magnetismo animale. Italia: Edipuglia.
Jones, K (2000) Insulin coma therapy in schizophrenia. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine; 93 (3): 147–149.
(2000) ABC ordered to hand over unedited head-drilling tapes. In: RCFP.
Maines, R. P. (1999) The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP.
Berrios, G. E. (1997) The Origins of Psychosurgery: Shaw, Burckhardt and Moniz. History of Psychiatry; 8(1):6 1–81.
Lumholtz, C. (1897) Trephining in Mexico. American Anthropologist; 10(12): 389.
Mayer-Gross, W. (1950). Insulin coma therapy of schizophrenia: some critical remarks on Dr Sakel’s report. Journal of Mental Science; 96: 132–135.
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