Mental Illnesses In The 1800s

Mental health illness are more prevalent than people think, or want to believe. An estimate of 61.5 million Americans experience mental illnesses in a year. Contrary to popular belief, anyone can fall victim to a mental health illness. Approximately Four million adolescents suffer from mental illnesses, in the United States (www.nami.org). The growing rate of mental health issues has concluded in the improvement and expansion of mental health treatment, more research is being done on the different kinds of illnesses, and how to treat them, or cope with them. The treatment process for mental health patients has in a way evolved. There were many practices that were performed in the late 1800s and even before then, that are no longer being used
today. The stigma that is placed on mental health illnesses and people who suffer from them is slowly but surely being resolved.
In the early 1800s there was no importance put on mental health issues, and no real help for people that suffer from mental health illnesses.
Many believed that the people who suffered from mental illnesses were somehow possessed or involved in witchcraft. People that were thought to have a mental illnesses were shunned and, forced to stay in their homes, away from other people. For the most part the mentally ill were left alone in their homes and untreated, but there were some that were not as lucky. Many mentally ill people were sent to jail, or burned at the stake because they were suspected to be involved in witchcraft and demonic practices. Some of the mentally ill were inhumanly chained to in basements, not given the right care or nourishment. They were often put on display, whipped and beaten, as a form of entertainment for others to
see.
Towards the mid-1800s, a women by the name of Dorothea Dix was considered the turning point for mental health treatment in the 1800s. In 1841, at the age of 31, Dorothea volunteered at the East Cambridge jail, where she saw that the meanly ill were being treated unjustly. They were put in the same cells as drunks, murders, and thieves. Rather than getting help for their illnesses they were getting punished along with the criminals in the jail. Dorothea was horrified with the condition of the jails that the mentally ill were kept. So she proceeded to go to the courts to try and change where the mentally ill were taken and how they are cared for. After a drawn out battle between Dorothea and the courts, she was granted the chance to change mental health treatment entirely. Immediately after her victory Dorothea began to visit different jails to gather data and information on the mentally ill people that were contained in these jails. Her main focus was to build facilities that were designed to help the mentally ill. Dorothea went on to create over 30 mental health hospitals in her lifetime, including Dorothea Dix Hospital that is located in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Although Dorothea wanted the mental asylum’s to be a place to better care for the mentally ill patients, the faculties and doctors that help run them weren’t the best.
The hospitals were often over populated and the patients were mistreated. Rooms designed for one to two patients, usually held four to five patients. Doctor’s diagnosis were often inaccurate, and the forms of treatment used were inhumane. The practice of Phrenology was introduced by, Franz Joseph Gall, a neuroanatomies, who believed that there was a connection between the size and shape of your skull, and your mental characteristics. A doctor would run their fingertips over a person’s head, to find bumps in the person’s skull. Doctors believed that the bumps were personality characteristics. Phrenology was thought to be very controversial, and is no longer put into practice
(www3.niu.edu).
Along with the inaccurate diagnosis doctors made, they also practiced inhumane treatments. In the 1900s lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy were introduced into mental asylums. A neurologist names Egas Moniz, believed the reason for patients erratic behavior was a result of circuits in the brain. To fix this problem Moniz wanted to sever the fibers connecting the frontal lobe and the rest of the brain, this procedure is known as a lobotomy (ww.bbc.com). The procedure involves a surgical tool called a leucotomy that has a loop of wire on it, that makes a circular lesion in the brain when rotated (live science).
Another way Doctors thought would solve erratic behaviors was electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also know shock therapy, and hydrotherapy. ECT is a procedure where electric currents are passed through the brain, which change brain chemistry and is found to reverse symptoms of some mental illnesses. In the 1900 Electroconvulsive Therapy was considered a harsh treatment because of the lack of anesthesia, leading to fractured bones and other serious side effects. After patients received electroconvulsive therapy they are considered less erratic, or hyper. Electroconvulsive Therapy is still used today, but in a much safer way, the patient is given anesthesia, and is in a controlled environment.
Hydrotherapy was a practice that included water at different temperatures. When conducting this procedure the temperature of the water were often drastic, either the water was ice cold, or steaming hot. Doctors believed that warm baths helped treat patients who were suicidal, or patients who suffered from insomnia, and that cold baths help patients who suffered form manic depression. They used cold water for manic depression, because the temperature of the water helped slow the blood flow in the body, so the patient was more clam, and less erratic. (www.lib.uwo.ca)