
The treatment of mental illness has changed in many ways. Some of these ways are medical technology, medication, and the housing treatment. These changes in mental illness healing have led to a great success.
Full Answer
How has the treatment of mental illness changed over time?
The treatment of mental illness has changed in many ways. Some of these ways are medical technology, medication, and the housing treatment. These changes in mental illness healing have led to a great success. Medical technology is one change that has led to advanced treatment of mental illness since the early 1900s.
How were people with disabilities treated in the past?
People with disabilities have always been a part of society, but they were not always accepted and looked after like we do now. Social constructs and ways of thinking have framed the views of society and therefore how people with disabilities were treated. These constructs and ideas of what disability is still frame our society and thinking today.
How have things changed in disability and society?
Disability and Society: How Have Things Changed? People with disabilities have always been a part of society, but they were not always accepted and looked after like we do now. Social constructs and ways of thinking have framed the views of society and therefore how people with disabilities were treated.
How has technology changed the way we treat mental illness?
Medical technology is one change that has led to advanced treatment of mental illness since the early 1900s. Firstly, “images produced by positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resources imaging (MRI) technology have revealed that a lot of the mental disorders may be due to the brain development, and structure or function,” (MI, 11).

How has the treatment of mental illness changed over time?
Mental health has been transformed over the last seventy years. There have been so many changes: the closure of the old asylums; moving care into the community; the increasing the use of talking therapies. They have all had a hugely positive impact on patients and mental health care.
How was mental illness treated today?
Psychotherapy is the therapeutic treatment of mental illness provided by a trained mental health professional. Psychotherapy explores thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and seeks to improve an individual's well-being. Psychotherapy paired with medication is the most effective way to promote recovery.
Who improved the treatment of the mentally ill?
One woman set out to change such perceptions: Dorothea Lynde Dix. Share on Pinterest Dorothea Dix was instrumental in changing perceptions of mental illness for the better. Born in Maine in 1802, Dix was instrumental in the establishment of humane mental healthcare services in the United States.
How did Philippe Pinel and Dorothea Dix change treatment for mental illness?
In the 1700s, Philippe Pinel advocated for patients to be unchained, and he was able to affect this in a Paris hospital. In the 1800s, Dorothea Dix urged the government to provide better funded and regulated care, which led to the creation of asylums, but treatment generally remained quite poor.
How was mental illness treated in the 20th century?
Psychotherapy emerges. For the most part, private asylums offered the treatments that were popular at that time. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most physicians held a somatic view of mental illness and assumed that a defect in the nervous system lay behind mental health problems.
How successful is mental health treatment?
The best treatments for serious mental illnesses today are highly effective; between 70 and 90 percent of individuals have a significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life with a combination of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments and supports.
How were mentally ill patients treated in the 1950s?
The use of certain treatments for mental illness changed with every medical advance. Although hydrotherapy, metrazol convulsion, and insulin shock therapy were popular in the 1930s, these methods gave way to psychotherapy in the 1940s. By the 1950s, doctors favored artificial fever therapy and electroshock therapy.
Is moral treatment still used today?
Combined with the diminishing belief in the significance of environmental factors on mental health, the decline in optimism surrounding asylums and mental health care meant that moral treatment fell into disuse by the 20th century.
What was treatment of people with mental illnesses like before Pinel's reforms?
Moral treatment was a product of the Enlightenment of the late eighteenth century. Before then people with psychiatric conditions, referred to as the insane, were usually treated in inhumane and brutal ways.
How did Philippe Pinel change psychiatry?
Abstract. Philippe Pinel (1745–1826) is often said to be the father of modern clinical psychiatry. He is most famous for being a committed pioneer and advocate of humanitarian methods in the treatment of the mentally ill, and for the development of a mode of psychological therapy known as moral treatment.
What is the contribution of Philippe Pinel to the history of treatments of mental illness?
Philippe Pinel, (born April 20, 1745, Saint-André, Tarn, Fr. —died Oct. 25, 1826, Paris), French physician who pioneered in the humane treatment of the mentally ill. Arriving in Paris (1778), he supported himself for a number of years by translating scientific and medical works and by teaching mathematics.
How was mental illness treated in the 19th century?
In early 19th century America, care for the mentally ill was almost non-existent: the afflicted were usually relegated to prisons, almshouses, or inadequate supervision by families. Treatment, if provided, paralleled other medical treatments of the time, including bloodletting and purgatives.
What asylums did people with disabilities go to?
However, individuals with disabilities-- whether physical or cognitive-- were commonly sent to "lunatic" and "insane" asylums. [2] Third Minnesota State Hospital for the Insane. Beginning in the late 1700s, European hospitals introduced what they called "moral treatment.".
When did moral treatment begin?
Beginning in the late 1700s , European hospitals introduced what they called "moral treatment.". Doctors, particularly in France and England, discouraged physical restraints, such as shackles or straitjackets. They focused instead on emotional well-being, believing this approach would cure patients more effectively.
What are the two new methods of electrotherapy?
Electroshock therapy and hydrotherapy were among two new methods. With electroshock therapy, small electric shocks were passed through the brains of patients. Hydrotherapy, or water exercises, were developed to help patients. Doctors were also influenced by popular ideas of eugenics in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
What religious organizations supported moral treatment?
Religious organizations also supported the concept of moral treatment. The Friends Asylum for the Insane in Philadelphia, founded in 1813, is one such example. Doctors there used a combination of Quaker views and medical science of the era. This was the first private, nonprofit exclusively mental hospital in the US.
What were the influences of doctors in the late 1800s?
Doctors were also influenced by popular ideas of eugenics in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Eugenics is the misguided belief that controlling genetics could improve the human race. Some doctors practiced forced sterilization on persons they deemed unfit, removing their ability to have children.
When did hospitals shut down?
From the 1960s to the 1990s, many hospitals and psychiatric institutions shut down, giving way to state-funded programs and services in place of these hospitals. These services strive to address an individual’s needs on a case-by-case basis, rather than aiming to “cure” patients with blanket treatments.
When was Bethphage Mission opened?
The Mission, opened in 1914 , followed the work of the Swedish and Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church. The Friends Hospital, Bethphage Mission, and other religious hospitals are still active today. Many hospitals stopped practicing this version of moral treatment in the 1900s for a number of reasons.
What was the disability in the 1800s?
In the 1800s, disability is portrayed as weak and pathetic in works like A Christmas Carol (Tiny Tim), and there is also an attempt to institutionalise disabled children for life. The 1900s sees eugenics and institutionalisation to be the norm.
Do people with disabilities have to be accepted?
People with disabilities have always been a part of society, but they were not always accepted and looked after like we do now. Social constructs and ways of thinking have framed the views of society and therefore how people with disabilities were treated.
Was disability stigmatised in the 1900s?
Looking back to what has been the treatment of people with disabilities through the ages, even in the early 1900s, it is clear to see that difference has always been stigmatised in societies far and wide. Not only stigmatised, sometimes even demonised!
Trephination
Trephination dates back to the earliest days in the history of mental illness treatments. It is the process of removing a small part of the skull using an auger, bore, or saw. This practice began around 7,000 years ago, likely to relieve headaches, mental illness, and even the belief of demonic possession.
Bloodletting and Purging
Though this treatment gained prominence in the Western world beginning in the 1600s, it has roots in ancient Greek medicine. Claudius Galen believed that disease and illness stemmed from imbalanced humors in the body. English physician Thomas Willis used Galen’s writings as a basis for this approach to treating mentally ill patients.
Isolation and Asylums
Isolation was the preferred treatment for mental illness beginning in medieval times, which may explain why mental asylums became widespread by the 17th century.
Insulin Coma Therapy
This treatment was introduced in 1927 and continued until the 1960s. In insulin coma therapy, physicians deliberately put the patient into a low blood sugar coma because they believed large fluctuations in insulin levels could alter how the brain functioned. Insulin comas could last one to four hours.
Metrazol Therapy
In metrazol therapy, physicians introduced seizures using a stimulant medication. Seizures began roughly a minute after the patient received the injection and could result in fractured bones, torn muscles, and other adverse effects. The therapy was usually administered several times a week. Metrazol was withdrawn from use by the FDA in 1982.
Lobotomy
This now-obsolete treatment won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1949. It was designed to disrupt the circuits of the brain but came with serious risks. Popular during the 1940s and 1950s, lobotomies were always controversial and prescribed in psychiatric cases deemed severe.
Who had the most progressive ideas in how they treated the people among them who had mental health concerns?
Two papyri, dated as far back as the 6th century BCE, have been called “the oldest medical books in the world.”. It was the ancient Egyptians who had the most progressive ideas (of the time) in how they treated the people among them who had mental health concerns.
Where did the first mental health reform take place?
But it was in Paris, in 1792, where one of the most important reforms in the treatment of mental health took place. Science Museum calls Pinel “the founder of moral treatment,” which it describes as “the cornerstone of mental health care in the 1800s.” 9,10 Pinel developed a hypothesis that mentally unhealthy patients needed care and kindness in order for their conditions to improve; to that effect, he took ownership of the famous Hospice de Bicêtre, located in the southern suburbs of Paris. He ordered that the facility be cleaned, patients be unchained and put in rooms with sunlight, allowed to exercise freely within hospital grounds, and that their quality of care be improved.
What did Freud do to help people with mental health problems?
Mainstream psychology may not have thought much of psychoanalysis, but the attention Freud’s work received opened other doors of mental health treatment, such as psychosurgery, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychopharmacology. These treatments originated from the biological model of mental illness, which put forward that mental health problems were caused by biochemical imbalances in the body (an evolution of the “four humors” theory) and needed to be treated like physical diseases; hence, for example, psychosurgery (surgery on the brain) to treat the symptoms of a mental health imbalance.
Why is having a mentally ill person in the family bad?
Having a mentally ill person in the family suggests an inherited, disqualifying defect in the bloodline and casts doubt on the social standing and viability of the entire family. For that reason, mentally unhealthy family members were (and still are) brutally and mercilessly ostracized.
What is the most common medication for depression?
As lithium became the standard for mental health treatment, other drugs like chlorpromazine (better known as Thorazine), Valium and Prozac became household names during the middle and latter decades of the 20th century, becoming some of the most prescribed drugs for depression across the world.
What were the causes of mental illness in ancient times?
Ancient theories about mental illness were often the result of beliefs that supernatural causes, such as demonic possession, curses, sorcery, or a vengeful god, were behind the strange symptoms. Remedies, therefore, ran the gamut from the mystical to the brutal.
When was psychosurgery first used?
Psychosurgery. One of the most infamous chapters in the history of mental health treatments was psychosurgery. First developed in the 1930s, a patient would be put into a coma, after which a doctor would hammer a medical instrument (similar to an icepick) through the top of both eye sockets.
There was a out cry for being more humane to mental ill patients that there were two Acts that were passed called Comprehensive Mental Health bill in 1964 and the Medicare and Medicaid Acts in 1966 that helped the mentally ill
There was a out cry for being more humane to mental ill patients that there were two Acts that were passed called Comprehensive Mental Health bill in 1964 and the Medicare and Medicaid Acts in 1966 that helped the mentally ill.
In 1960 there were over 500,000 patients in mental institutions in America
Lobotomy started in 1936, this type of surgery was performed by using a "ice-pick" that would be under the upper eyelid and would be hit into the frontal lobe of the brain, this treatment was used to treat schizophrenia and severe depression. This type of psychotherapy stopped in 1967.
Electro-convulsive therapy is a treatment that sends electronic impulses into the brain to stimulate the neurons that aren't working properly. This treatment only lasts 8 seconds but could produce a short seizure. This treatment was used to treat server depression but can be used to help those people who were seeing delusions, hallucinations, or having suicidal thoughts
They believed that having a mental illness was God punishing you for committing sin but at the same they believed that God was a healer at the same time. Also they believed that Demons would be the cause of it and the physicians who were priests believed in a "higher power" to heal the mentally ill.
Who is responsible for integrating people with mental illness into society?
Today, the treating physician as well as the active family members are directly responsible for integrating people with mental illness into society. Treatment Centers. Also, if a mentally ill person needs to be hospitalized, there is less of a chance now than before that they will be subject to restraints and isolation.
Is mental illness a stigma?
Even though there have been numerous advancements in the way of treating mental disorders in the past 50 years, there is still a certain stigma surrounding the views on mental illness. Many people still mistakenly believe that someone with a mental illness is simply lazy or they will place blame on the parents if the patient is a child.
Does family therapy help with mental illness?
Family Therapy. And research has proven that a patients relationship with their family members can positively or negatively affect their mental illness. Because of this research, family therapy was born and this therapy has allowed those with an illness to stay out of institutions.
Is psychiatry a day or night treatment?
Today's psychiatry leans toward day treatment centers where there are less staff members and an increased emphasis on group therapy as opposed to individual therapy, which paved the course for halfway houses as well as allowing patients with mental illness to go home at night and still receive treatment during the day.
