History of Biological Treatments in Psychiatry in the 20th Century


Authors : Desidério Duarte; Maria T. D. Viseu

Volume/Issue : Volume 6 - 2021, Issue 11 - November

Google Scholar : http://bitly.ws/gu88

Scribd : https://bit.ly/3dnstMd

This year commemorates a century since the discovery of insulin, a substance that in 1927 (only 6 years after its synthesis) was used by Manfred Sakel to treat patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic diseases. The insulinic shocks were in fact one of the revolutionary milestones and drivers of biological treatments in psychiatry. Objective - When celebrating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin and its importance in the revolution of treatments and imposition of Psychiatry as a medical specialty, this article seeks to review the literature on this treatment and it’s positioning in the history of biological treatments throughout the twentieth century. Methods - Non-systematic review of the literature on the theme under study. Search was done in the PubMed database, with the following keywords: shock therapy; seizure therapy; biological treatment; insulin therapy. Results - The most used treatments throughout the 20th century were insulinic shocks, malariotherapy, camphorinduced convulsions and electroconvulsive therapy. The use of these treatments was based on the principle that seizures were beneficial for alleviating symptoms and curing various mental illnesses, including schizophrenia. Although there are several reports from this time about the recovery of patients submitted to these techniques, electroconvulsive therapy was in fact the first biological treatment to present cohesive and consistent positive results. Conclusion - At a time when the etiology of psychiatric pathologies was unknown, the use of insulin shocks and induction of seizures for the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic diseases revolutionized the treatment in psychiatry. With the discovery of psychotropic drugs, namely antidepressants and antipsychotics, most of these techniques have gone into disuse and nowadays only electroconvulsive therapy is used in specific cases.

Keywords : Convulsive treatment; history of psychiatry; Sakel's method; electroconvulsive therapy component; formatting; style; styling; insert.

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