History
The history of treatment of mental disorders consist in a development through years in both psychotherapy (Cognitive therapy, Behavior therapy, Group Therapy, and ECT) and psychopharmacology (drugs used in mental disorders). Psychotherapy is a relatively new method used in treatment of mental disorders. The practice of individual psychotherapy as a treatment of mental disorders is about 100 years old. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was the first one to introduce this concept in psychoanalysis. Cognitive therapy is a more recent therapy that was founded by Aaron T. Beck ( born in 1921), an American psychiatrist. It is a more systematic and structured part of psychotherapy. It consist in helping the patient learn effective ways to overcome their problems and difficulties that causes them distress. Behavior therapy has its roots in experimental psychology. E.L Thorndike and B.F Skinner were among the first to work on behavior therapy. Convulsive therapy was introduced by Ladislas Meduna in 1934. He induced seizures, by using pentetrazol, as a way to reduce depression. Meanwhile in Italy, Ugo Cerletti substituted metrazol (which was used in Convulsive theory) with electricity. Because of this substitution the new theory was called Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT). Beside psychotherapy, a wide range of medication is used in the treatment of mental disorders. The first drugs used for this purpose were extracted from plants with psychoactive properties. Louis Lewin, in 1924, was the first one to introduce a classification of drugs and plants that had these kind of properties. The history of the medications used in mental disorders has developed a lot through years. The discovery of modern drugs prevailed during the 19th century.. Lithium was discovered as a treatment of mania, by John F. Cade in 1949, "and Hammond (1871) used lithium bromide for 'acute mania with depression'". In 1937, Daniel Bovet and Anne-Marie Staub discovered the first antihistamine (Neuroleptic). In 1950 the Paul Charpentier synthesized chlorpromazine (Neuroleptic). Different perspectives on the causes of psychological disorders arose including some that stated that psychological disorders are caused by specific abnormalities of the brain and nervous system and that is, in principle, they should be approached for treatments in the same way as physical illness (arose from Hippocrates's ideas).
Read more about this topic: Treatment Of Mental Disorders
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It gives me the greatest pleasure to say, as I do from the bottom of my heart, that never in the history of the country, in any crisis and under any conditions, have our Jewish fellow citizens failed to live up to the highest standards of citizenship and patriotism.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)