King George's Mental Illness: A Case Study

King George’s mental illness was very misunderstood by the doctors at that time. He was treated with the typical treatments at the time. They did not help him and if anything they made him much worse from being able to suffer through it.
Most people agree that the King’s illness was diagnosed as Porphyria. Porphyria can be caused by an excessive amount of rich wine or an exposure prolonged exposure to arsenic. It is mostly thought in King George’s case though to be genetic and passed down to him. The King’s symptoms included abdominal pain, rashes, delusions, not being able to stay on topic, constant talking, depression, and most the outstanding, blue urine.
King George was treated to the crude and typical remedies of the day. His skin was blistered by hot glass to expel the poisons of his mental illness, they bleed him, purged him, sedated him, and kept …show more content…
The barbaric treatments that people used on their patients has been replaced today by more humane treatments. There is no blistering or bleeding used in treatments for the mentally ill. Doctors today treat patients with more care and have more knowledge about their conditions. They do not harm their patients and instead use more mentally stimulating exercises to help them recover such as just talking or giving them puzzles and other brain exercises. They use medication in more severe cases of mental illnesses, but we now have more knowledge of the medicines that we use so they become more safe and help more. We use a similar method that Dr. Willis used in terms of behavioral treatment. Rewards are more effective than punishments which is why we've tweaked the behavioral system to what it is today. It is more focused around rewarding patients for displaying good behavior rather than punishing them for bad behavior. The treatments used today are more humane and help the patients more than the the treatments of King George’s