How Mental Hospitals and Treatments Have Changed Through Time
Did you know that some of the first specialty hospitals were mental hospitals? Long before we had specialized pediatric care or specialized heart hospitals, we had mental hospitals. This is, of course, likely because we wanted to keep the mentally ill separate from the rest of the population. And, early mental hospitals did little to treat patients. They were more a place where the mentally ill could live and be watched over, and often sedated.
There is record as early as 2850BC of a hospital in Egypt called Temple of Imhotep. It was a medical school, but also offered sleep therapy, occupational therapies, and recreational activities for the mentally ill. At this time in history, however, theories about mental illness were based on ideas of magic and superstition, and therefore, so were treatments and results. However, even this early in history, patients were treated humanely.
England is believed to have been home to the first true mental hospital. St. Mary of Bethlehem was founded as a religious priory in 1247, but also offered a hospice. By 1377, it began to take in mental patients (referred to as lunatics), and by 1547, it was devoted solely to the care of the mentally ill. The name was changed to Bethlehem Royal Hospital. It was virtually the only mental hospital in England for hundreds of years. During the early years at Bethlehem Royal, mental patients were considered inhuman, and were treated as such. They were whipped, shackled and kept in cages, where they were fed through the bars.
Spain opened their first mental hospital in 1409, called the Innocents Hospital of Valencia. Even in the US, one of the first hospitals was a mental hospital. Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia was the first mental hospital in the US and opened its doors in 1773. It was only the nation’s fourth hospital.
Over time, as medical professionals have come to better understand mental illness, treatments and facilities have changed considerably. In the early 1840’s Dorothea Dix, began lobbying for more humane treatment of mental patients, noting that they were housed with criminals, and left unclothed, chained and beaten. She was instrumental in establishing 32 state mental hospitals across the US, where mental patients could be housed in separate quarters from other hospital patients and criminals, and where they would be treated humanely and receive treatment for their illness.
Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic studies led to the primary treatment of mental illness to be “talking cures”; most of which are still used today. By the 1930’s, drugs were introduced for treatment of the mentally ill, along electro-convulsive therapy and surgeries, like frontal lobotomies. The first drug to really treat symptoms, as opposed to just sedating patients, was lithium, which was introduced by Australian psychiatrist JFJ Cade, in 1949. It gained wide popularity for treating bipolar disorder (then known as manic depression) in the 1960s.
Today, there are over 7000 psychiatric hospitals in the United States. Many psychological disorders are controlled by medicines, yet there is still likely much misunderstanding about the mentally ill.
Phyllis Turner Zerkle writes about getting a master of hospital administration.
There is record as early as 2850BC of a hospital in Egypt called Temple of Imhotep. It was a medical school, but also offered sleep therapy, occupational therapies, and recreational activities for the mentally ill. At this time in history, however, theories about mental illness were based on ideas of magic and superstition, and therefore, so were treatments and results. However, even this early in history, patients were treated humanely.
England is believed to have been home to the first true mental hospital. St. Mary of Bethlehem was founded as a religious priory in 1247, but also offered a hospice. By 1377, it began to take in mental patients (referred to as lunatics), and by 1547, it was devoted solely to the care of the mentally ill. The name was changed to Bethlehem Royal Hospital. It was virtually the only mental hospital in England for hundreds of years. During the early years at Bethlehem Royal, mental patients were considered inhuman, and were treated as such. They were whipped, shackled and kept in cages, where they were fed through the bars.
Spain opened their first mental hospital in 1409, called the Innocents Hospital of Valencia. Even in the US, one of the first hospitals was a mental hospital. Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia was the first mental hospital in the US and opened its doors in 1773. It was only the nation’s fourth hospital.
Over time, as medical professionals have come to better understand mental illness, treatments and facilities have changed considerably. In the early 1840’s Dorothea Dix, began lobbying for more humane treatment of mental patients, noting that they were housed with criminals, and left unclothed, chained and beaten. She was instrumental in establishing 32 state mental hospitals across the US, where mental patients could be housed in separate quarters from other hospital patients and criminals, and where they would be treated humanely and receive treatment for their illness.
Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic studies led to the primary treatment of mental illness to be “talking cures”; most of which are still used today. By the 1930’s, drugs were introduced for treatment of the mentally ill, along electro-convulsive therapy and surgeries, like frontal lobotomies. The first drug to really treat symptoms, as opposed to just sedating patients, was lithium, which was introduced by Australian psychiatrist JFJ Cade, in 1949. It gained wide popularity for treating bipolar disorder (then known as manic depression) in the 1960s.
Today, there are over 7000 psychiatric hospitals in the United States. Many psychological disorders are controlled by medicines, yet there is still likely much misunderstanding about the mentally ill.
Phyllis Turner Zerkle writes about getting a master of hospital administration.
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