A MENTAL
HEALTH
HISTORY
1930s
Some patients with serious mental illnesses were treated with a lobotomy,
a surgery that removed sections of the
brain. This decade also saw the beginning
of electroshock therapy-using an electric current to induce convulsions-to
treat depression and schizophrenia.
Our understanding of
mental illness is a relatively
recent development
The more experts learn about mental
illness, the more effectively conditions
like depression and anxiety disorders
can be treated. While we can continue
to improve, take a look at how far
treatment has come.
1600s-1700s
In 1600s Europe, mentally ill
people were often isolated.
Those who were considered
insane were sometimes kept in
dungeons. By the late 1700s,
reforms started to take place,
allowing patients to have access
to sunlight and fresh air.
20
SU M M ER 2015
Late 1800s
Reporter Nellie Bly went undercover
as an inmate in an asylum to expose
the cruel treatment of the mentally
ill. Thanks to her work, state mental hospitals received funding to
improve conditions.
1840s
When Dorothea Dix investigated
treatment of mentally ill patients in
Massachusetts, she found widespread
abuse in unregulated facilities. Over the
next 40 years, she fought to establish
32 state hospitals for the mentally ill.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Living Well - Summer 2015 - Beaufort