Early Hospital Treatments for Severe Mental Disorders

A popular technique was hydrotherapy in which patients were sprayed by water in order to stimulate them. The wet pack consisted of packing, that is, wrapping patients in wet sheets. This next procedure, the continuous bath, was kept at 98 degrees Fahrenheit. Its aim was to sedate patients. Hot boxes and lamps were used in order to help relax patients.

A predecessor to electroconvulsive therapy was insulin therapy, although this approach was more dangerous and less effective than ECT has since become. Insulin therapy was developed by Viennese physician Manfred Sakel. It was used primarily on patients with schizophrenia.

The idea was to give patients insulin which would make their blood sugar drop. The patient would then slip into a coma, and most importantly, would experience a convulsive reaction. One form of reaction brought about by insulin therapy was called wet shock because it included profuse sweating and drooling as seen here.

Another reaction brought on by insulin therapy was so-called dry shock, involving a full brain seizure. Glucose, given by nasal tube or by injection, was needed to bring patients out of their insulin-induced coma. Metrazol therapy, an intravenous injection of metrazol on patients, again, primarily with schizophrenia, was another form of compulsive therapy that was used prior to ECT or electroconvulsive therapy.

It was developed by Hungarian physician Ladislas Meduna. And the intravenous injection of metrazol typically produced grand mal type seizure. Finally, one of the most notorious of all early procedures was a lobotomy, a brain operation in which a surgeon would cut the connections between the cortex of the brain's frontal lobes and the lower centers of the brain.