Electroconvulsive Therapy Vs Shock Therapy

Today a mental illness is defined as a chemical imbalance in the brain which causes person to act differently. In the Past psychiatrists did not have medication to treat mental illnesses. Instead they relied on physical methods such as lobotomies, shock therapy, asylums, exorcism, trephining and many more. It is important to become aware of past treatments to better understand the reason for current treatments, it also provides us better information to move forward and create better, more effective treatments today. Throughout history treatments for mental illnesses were extremely dangerous and not as effective as modern treatments. Early Psychiatrists did not have medications to treat mental illnesses, and instead often relied on physical …show more content…
This method is known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), or also commonly called shock treatment. “The passive of the current induced immediate unconsciousness and although the patient retained no memory of the violent convulsions which followed, the muscular spasms which followed almost always caused serious brushing and laceration of the tongue and lips. Or often more serious injuries such as fractures of the limps or even of the spine” (Brainwaves). Shock treatment was treated for people with schizophrenia in the past and was very dangerous. Patients would either receive an overdose of insulin or have electrodes placed on their head to send electric current, both these methods caused the patient to go unconscious and have seizures. The narrator of Brainwaves says, “The reality of the treatment was considerably less reassuring than the professionals were prepared to admit” (Brainwaves). Many doctors and psychologists believed the treatment was greatest new thing and became very commonly used for the treatment of …show more content…
Harpin says in her article, “These (asylums) were not places of treatment or ‘hospitality’ they were filthy pits and housed indigent and unwanted people. Often the public was invited to pay a fee to enter these asylums and observe and laugh at the people chained there” (336). Before medications some strange methods used in asylums included, putting patients in a locked crib, and a spinning chair, or suspending them by the head. Throughout history asylums have dissolved slowly in the U.S. Christine Tartaro studied the evolution of asylums. She says in her article, “Many hospitals today where patients are kept on chains still exist in many places of the world, but in the U.S. many people with psychological disorders are in jails or prisons because it is cheaper to put them there”(Tartaro 88). Unfortunately the United States provided very little care outside of hospitals most of the mentally ill are commonly left on the streets homeless, living in the care of relatives and in jail or prisons. Asylums throughout history has had brutal effects on the mentally ill. Treatments for mental illnesses continuously continue to expand and become more effective. It has been said that those who are ignorant of the past are forced to relive it. It is important to know about historical events not only for intellectual value of such knowledge, but for the practical reason