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First Mental Hospital
In the early Islamic world, Ahmad ibn Tulun founded the first psychiatric hospital in Cairo which treatment included musical therapy. Noted by their kindness to the ill. -
Bloodletting
In the early seventeenth century, western physicians used bloodletting to treat many illnesses including mental. They thought by getting rid of the bad blood, it'll take out the illness with it whilst being replaced by good blood. -
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Mental Asylums
People used asylums since often people treated mental illnesses with isolation. This however was very inhumane which led to the closure of mental asylums. These asylums can house hundreads, thousands of mentally ill which was ideal at that time. Over crowding, over worked, under staffed were many problems with asylums however. -
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Mental Insiutions
Throughout the 18th and 20th century, institutions were founded to house the mentally ill. At first, they treated the ill terribly until people saw the terrors they were causing, leading to reforms. In addition, funding for institutions and care of the mentally ill dropped significantly. -
Humanitarian Approach
During the enlightenment, people started to treat the mentally ill with more humanity and worked to progress treatment. French physician Dr. Philippe Pinel was the first start reformations for moral treatment. He went on to start 10 more institutions across France for the mentally ill. -
England
In England, Quaker William Tuke founded the York Retreat where he housed 30 patients as a community with human care in mind. This set off the spark in England for human treatment in institutions. -
Lobotomy
A highly controversial treatment but greatly wide spread is the practice of lobotomy. This treatment included sticking a ice pick like stick through the eye socket to disconnect the prefrontal cortex and frontal lobes of the brain. This was usually just a practice reserved for extreame cases but was then spread to the common illnesses. It took only 5 minutes to compleate which explains the wide spread usage. This practice mostly stopped during the 50's with the introduction of medicine. -
Medicine
After the 50's medicine was introduced to take the place of lobotomies. One flaw of this was that not all medicine would work for different illnesses. The usage started with chlorpromazine, an anti psychotic. -
Mental Heath System Act
In 1990 under President Jimmy Carter, he signed into the Mental Health System Health act which has the aim to restructure the care and treatment of the mentally ill. -
Ronald Reagan
Only 1 year after the act was signed in by Jimmy Carter, Ronald Readan signed in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act which slashed funding for the mentally ill and repealed Carter's health legislation.
