What Were the Early Treatments for Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is an incurable mental illness usually requiring lifelong treatment for the affected individual. Early treatments for schizophrenia date back to ancient times, but most treatments have been developed since the turn of the 19th century. Initial treatment methods were often barbaric and largely ineffective, but successfully transformed public perception of schizophrenia from one of demonic possession to one of a legitimate and treatable medical illness.
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Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
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ECT was one of the earliest treatments for mental illness and is still used today. Primitive ECT practices in ancient times used eels and fish to produce an electrical charge. Dr. Ugo Cerletti and his assistant were the first to use electric shock in a clinical environment to produce seizures in schizophrenic patients in 1937.
Tranquilizing Chair
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The "tranquilizing chair" was one of the first treatments for schizophrenia. Penn Med, web page for Pennsylvania Hospital, reports Dr. Benjamin Rush designed the chair to restrict muscle movement and reduce blood flow. Leather straps restrained the patient at the feet, legs, arms, hands and torso while a wooden box was placed over the head to prevent movement.
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Labor
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Asylums commonly used "therapeutic labor" among early treatments for schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. Patients maintained farmland, manufactured shoes and clothing and more as a form of therapy. Doctors believed affected persons would behave "normally" if they were held to a normal routine.
Insulin
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Insulin was used to produce shock in schizophrenic patients by psychiatrist Manfred Sakel in 1933. Insulin was injected daily for eight weeks, increasing in dosage until producing daily comas and seizures that provided moderate and short-term recovery from schizophrenia.
Lobotomy
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Egas Moniz received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 for developing the lobotomy (then called the leukotomy) as a treatment for schizophrenia. The surgical procedure permanently disabled the prefrontal region of the brain, creating a sedated affect in the patient, but no real recovery.
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