Mental Health In The 1800s

To understand health, you need to understand illness. The history of mental health goes back as fas as written records. In the 1700s, there were positive reforms. For example, the mentally ill were given access to “sunny rooms” and were advised to exercise. Moving on the 1800s, in the United States, the mentally ill were often imprisoned alongside criminals without any source of heat, no access to bathrooms and were left unclothed. Even though things were looking up when U.S. reformer pushed to establish more than 20 hospitals for the mentally ill, many were uncured as was expected which led to overcrowding and mistreatment of patients. Skipping forward to the 20th century, the largest organization, Mental Health America, was founded. In the early 1900s, comas and fevers were common amongst the mentally ill for they were induced by electroshock, camphor and malaria injections.

Lobotomy is removing parts of the brain to treat illnesses such as schizophrenia, severe anxiety and depression. In 1949, lithium, the first truly effective drug was introduced and became the official treatment for bipolar disorder. Throughout the 1950s, a numerous amount of antipsychotics were discovered. The discovered antipsychotics did not cure mental illnesses. However, they controlled the symptoms. Nowadays, homelessness and imprisonment are still a major concern, alongside not having enough resources to cure patients with a severe illness. On the other hand, a variety of psychiatric medications are proving to be successful in treating mental patients. psychological well-being and satisfactory adjustment to society and to the ordinary demands of life. Mental health has many causes, types and myths and facts that will be discussed further into this