treatment history
Physical therapies:
surprises and shocks

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The earliest physical treatments for mental illness evolved not in asylums but in fashionable spas and sanitoriums. Hydrotherapy (water treatment) became popular in the 19th century, including the Bath of Surprise.
The patient was made to walk along a narrow passage, part of which would give away beneath him, plunging him into a bath of cold water. Sudden shocks and physical disorientation were the ‘treatment’ underlying other physical therapies then in vogue.
Physical state therapies were used experimentally in the history of mental health treatment.

Suggestion under hypnosis was fashionable in the late 19th century for patients suffering from ‘hysteria’. In the late 20th century drug-induced sleep, comas and even deliberately triggered epileptic fits were all tried on schizophrenics.

All these physical therapies were ultimately replaced by ECT (Electro - Convulsive Therapy), which remained a treatment for serious depression, even though the reason for its success is still not fully understood. It does not cure patients, but it is used to provide relief from psychotic symptoms.

Developed in Italy, ECT first came to Britain in 1939 and was introduced in Dundee during the Second World War. In the 1960s public opinion turned against ECT. In Britain a report was commissioned which found an alarming lack of regulation in its use, and led to national standards being imposed. A dedicated ECT unit was later formed at Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, along with an intensive training programme.

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