Medicine is not always humane. Some of the doctors' ideas are downright scary. These usually include all kinds of shock therapy techniques. Its idea is based on the fact that from a shake-up the body mobilizes resources and will be able to cope with the disease. However, the methods and consequences of such therapy were often worse for the patient than the disease itself.
Electroconvulsive therapy
Until the 70s of the twentieth century, ECT was considered a panacea for mental disorders. It was used to treat depression, homosexuality, schizophrenia, epilepsy and many other diseases. The essence of the method is simple: electrodes were connected to the patient's temples and a powerful electrical discharge was passed through the brain. The force of the discharge was counted on the eye, the patients were not given anesthesia - it is not surprising that after such procedures they often went completely crazy instead of curing. Now ECT is also used - however, anesthesia is considered mandatory, and the list of indications has narrowed a lot. In this form, it, at least, does not harm patients, although many doctors still question its benefit.
Genital electroshock
This procedure was used several decades ago to treat homosexuality. The patient had electrodes attached to his genitals and allowed to view pictures or videos of gay porn. At the first sign of excitement, the doctors gave a shock, and the patient was hit with electricity in the most sensitive places. This procedure was thought to create “negative reinforcement,” and eventually the patient should become imbued with aversion to same-sex love. True, the fans of the technique could not present the patients who were really cured in this way.
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Educational electroshock
Another type of ECT, used in the middle of the twentieth century to solve behavioral problems in children. Patients six years of age and older with severe behavioral problems in school and kindergarten were attached electrodes to their shoulders and, if the children behaved inappropriately, were given an electrical shock. Today, anyone would consider such a "treatment" sadism.
Cerebral diathermy
Lateral cerebral diathermy is a precursor to ECT, a method widely practiced by psychiatrists in the early 20th century. The procedure was even less worked out: instead of two electrodes on the temples, one electrode was used, which the doctor applied to the patient's head and shocked him with an electric discharge. The strength of the current was as unpredictable as the results of the procedure: sometimes the patients went crazy, sometimes they completely lost their own personality.
Seizure therapy
Seizure therapy was invented based on ECT. In accordance with this technique, the main task of the doctor was to induce convulsions in the patient. Its authors believed that the therapeutic effect on the brain is produced not by the electric shock itself, but by the convulsions caused by it. The convulsions were not caused by electrical shocks, but by drugs such as pentylenetetrazole and cardiazole. The technique was based on a strange idea: epileptics do not suffer from schizophrenia, which means that if it is possible to induce convulsive syndrome in a schizophrenic, his underlying disease will safely disappear. Needless to say, the idea has never been confirmed in reality.
Medications that cause nausea
This method of "curing" homosexuality was, of course, more humane than genital electroshock, but no less senseless and merciless. In this case, the patient was also shown gay porn, but instead of being electrocuted, he was fed nausea-inducing pills. As a result, the patient felt nauseous, which, again, should have formed an aversion to gay topics. This method, however, was quickly found to be ineffective. And soon, in 1973, homosexuality was removed from the WHO list of diseases, and the corresponding methods died out by themselves.
Insulin shock therapy
Insulinocomatous therapy is another brutal treatment for schizophrenia. With the help of high doses of insulin, the patient is injected into a hypoglycemic coma with the help of large doses of insulin, and after a while, by injecting glucose into him, he is taken out of the coma. Such procedures continue almost daily for one to two months, after which, it is argued, schizophrenia does not recur for at least two years. Back in the early 1960s, Western scientists declared that insulinocomatous therapy was of no practical benefit, but in a number of countries, such as Russia and China, it continued to be used until the beginning of the 21st century.
Sleep therapy
Sleep therapy has been in use since the early 1900s. The creators of the method decided: if the brain rests and recovers during sleep, why not deliberately immerse a patient with a psychiatric diagnosis in deep sleep in order to give the brain time to repair itself? The treatment was practiced until the 1960s, when doctors discovered many side effects from sleep therapy, from memory loss to sudden death. However, the latest scandal surrounding the unauthorized use of this technique last erupted in 2011, when Australian psychiatrists prescribed sleep therapy to patients precisely in order to achieve memory loss, since they had a very bad experience of ECT.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
This method is still used today in psychiatric clinics to treat depression. Its essence is in the action on the brain with the help of electromagnetic fields that change the level of activity of the electromagnetic waves of the brain itself. Many doctors consider the technique to be effective, but they also recognize that there are many side effects associated with it, including tics, headaches, seizures, and loss of consciousness. And this, apparently, is not all: doctors themselves admit that the long-term effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation have not yet been studied.
Deep brain stimulation
This method is also widely used, but many doctors already say that it is being used completely incorrectly today. It brings proven improvements in the fight against Parkinson's disease. However, it is also applied to patients with obsessive-compulsive syndrome, although there are no significant effects. During treatment, an electrode is inserted into the patient's brain, which sends electronic impulses. In essence, this is the same electroconvulsive therapy, but performed right inside the brain. And she has no less side effects.
Magic mushrooms
Some doctors still use hallucinogenic mushrooms to treat depression and anxiety disorders, convincing that mystical experiences experienced by the sick will banish negative experiences. However, most psychiatrists consider such doctors to be dangerous ignoramuses. In fact, hallucinogens do not have a proven effect in the treatment of these diseases, but in 5% of those treated subsequently paranoia begins, and anxiety disorder increases. However, in many countries this practice still exists.
Defibrillation
Defibrillation is an emergency method of starting the heart when it stops. Two electrodes, a strong electrical discharge - and now the already stopped heart beats again! At least that's how it happens in the movies. In real medical practice, however, defibrillation is performed only in emergency cases, for health reasons and in the absence of other options. Because this technique is extremely traumatic! Chest burns, heart burns and blood clots are just the most common side effects of its use. So this method of treatment, renowned by cinematography, sometimes turns out to be no less dangerous than the disease itself.
Aversive therapy
Moviegoers could see an example of aversive therapy in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, and those whom their father caught with a cigarette as a child and forced them to smoke the whole pack at once experienced it the hard way. The essence of the method is to rid the patient of harmful behavior by evoking persistent negative associations with him. The method is used to treat drug addiction, alcoholism, aggression, and in the past it was also used to get rid of homosexuality. For example, to get rid of drugs, the patient is injected with a dose of a substance, while simultaneously forcing him to drink a drug that causes nausea or headache, or other unpleasant sensations are activated - they shock the patient or turn on the recording of an extremely unpleasant noise. The method is used little, because it is considered ineffective. But the negative consequences for the nervous system,and sometimes for the physical health of the patient are very large.
Horror stories on tobacco packs
Creepy pictures on cigarette packs are, in fact, also a method of therapy that should help smokers get rid of their addiction. And the whole point is that once doctors said that such pictures can become a kind of negative stimulus, as in aversive therapy. However, the effectiveness of these photographs is not higher than that of the aversive therapy itself (that is, close to zero), but they spoiled the psyche of many people - especially children who, for one reason or another, had a chance to closely examine a cigarette pack at home or at a party.
Home stun gun with a projector
It is hard to believe that back in the middle of the twentieth century, this device for self-therapy was very popular. At that time, homophobia was the norm rather than the exception, and many people themselves wanted to get rid of the “wrong” orientation. Even more people succumbed to family pressure. In such cases, psychiatric treatment - for example, with electric shock - was often supplemented with home therapy using such a small device. He combined the functions of a stun gun and a projector. While the projector was projecting seductive pictures of a homosexual and erotic nature onto the wall, the shocker shocked the patient. Needless to say, other than suffering for the patient, this therapy was of no use.