Mental Illness has shown up throughout history. One of the main cases found is Bipolar or manic-depressive disorder. Bipolar treatments have varied greatly throughout time. Some included extermination while others were treated with medicine. Some patients with bipolar resorted to self medication and oftentimes found themselves worse than when they started. There has been much controversy surrounding how to treat and possibly prevent this disorder. Because of bipolars ups and downs, many patients want the highs and want a way to get rid of the lows. Medicine has evolved enough over time to allow these people to stabilize.
One of the main concerns is that the patients don’t take their medications how they were prescribed. BIPOLAR TREATMENTS 3 Bipolar Treatments Throughout History Definition of Bipolar Throughout history there have been many cases of mental illnesses. The most prominent is bipolar disease. Bipolar, or manic-depression, is a hereditary disease causing severe fluctuations in mood, behavior, thought processing, energy, and sleep. (Jamison, 1993). Many famous poets, writers, and artists have had manic-depressive illnesses. Some have committed suicide because of it. Attempts have been tried and tested throughout time to cure, or stabilize, apatient’s disorder. Practices ranged from euthanizing, to sterilizing, to exorcising, and to modern day Lithium dosages.
Some treatments had no effects, some were quite fatal, and others are still being tested. Early History of Bipolar BIPOLAR HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A VERY LONG TIME. THE FIRST KNOWN RECORD WAS AROUND 1ST century Greece. A physician, Aretaeus of Cappadocia, wrote about the link between Bipolar and Mania. In his book Causes And Symptoms Of Acute Disease He writes about the symptoms he observed “…sluggishness, vertigo, heaviness of the tendons, plethora and distension of the veins in the neck; and much nausea indeed after food, but also, not unfrequently, with abstinence, there is a faint nausea; and phlegm is often vomited; want of appetite and indigestion after little food: they have flatulence and meteorism in the hypochondria.
These symptoms, indeed, are constant. But, if it be near the accession of the paroxysm, there are before the sight circular flashes of purple or black colours, or of all mixed together, so as to exhibit the appearance of the rainbow expanded in the heavens; noises in the ears; a heavy smell; they are passionate, and unreasonably peevish.
They fall down then, some from any such cause as lowness of spirits, but others from gazing intently on a running stream, a rolling…”(Adam, 2014). The ancient Greeks and Romans BIPOLAR TREATMENTS 4 had special baths that they let people, exhibiting these symptoms, go into. These baths were later found to be a source of naturally occurring lithium. The people in these baths would end up absorbing the lithium through their skin. (Stephens, 2014). A couple hundred years later, people with Bipolar were thought to have sinned and this was their punishment (this is around early history of the Catholic Church at best guess).
A modern day author, Cara Gardenswartz, wrote that “In the earliest days of documentation, these people were viewed as ‘crazy,’ possessed by the devil or demons,”… Their treatment or punishment…included restraint or chaining; their blood was let out; they were given different potions, or electric eels were applied to the skull—“much in the way witches have been treated in various cultures. In fact, witchcraft was often used to try and ‘cure’ them,” (Stephens, 2014). Euthanizing used to be a common practice, especially with Hitler. In her book, Touched with.
Fire, Kay Jamison writes about how Nazis would kill people with the disorder in German concentration camps. She also writes about how Sterilization techniques were used on patients with the disorder, these techniques are still used today in China, along with abortions. (Jamison, 1993). These practices in the USA are no longer practiced because it is considered unethical and in-humane. Modern Day Treatments of Bipolar Modern day practices of treating Bipolar revolve mainly around the use of Lithium.
Lithium has been used as a recognized mood stabilizer since 1949 when an Australian physician by the name John Cade, tested on guinea pigs and found that the compound Lithium urate appeared to calm them. (Shorter, 2009). After that test lithium was used to help calm people. In the 1970’s the FDA approved lithium to be used on patients with manic-depressive disorders. Tests have been done to try out new, and possibly more effective, mood stabilizers. Paroxetine is BIPOLAR TREATMENTS 5 one of these. (Morishita, 2003). Doctors and physicians also give patients anticonvulsants such as Lamotrigine Valproic acid and Divalproex sodium.
Anticonvulsants are used to calmhyperactivity in the brain to prevent the brain from overloading and the patient going into shock. When paired with Bipolar, these anticonvulsants help calm the activity in the brain. (National Institute of Mental Health). Dangers of Self Medication Many people attempt to “self medicate. ” They use drugs, like alcohol, to drown the depression. Unfortunately alcohol is a depressant, and causes ones emotions to be magnified. When one drinks while depressed they often sink lower.
Then they keep drinking to block out the depression and they increase risk of alcohol poisoning, irrevocable organ damage, and possibly causing damage to others. Most drugs, though they give you a high, often make a person’s emotions “crash” causing an even lower state than when they started. Self medicating is not advised. (Barrowclough, 2006). Final Thoughts on Bipolar Bipolar is not curable. The best way to explain it is that a person has high moments where creativity and wonder is sparked and they crashed down into low moments where depression and darkness reign. Many patients want that high point and to have the low point taken away or suppressed.
In history patients had choices taken from them though sterilization, euthanasia, and lobotomizing. Famous people like Vincent Van Gog and Edgar Allan Poe have given society great works of art. Not every person with Bipolar puts their talent to use like that, but there is no doubt that manic-depressive illness unlocks heightened creativity in some individuals. Kay Jamison writes about Bipolar with a sense of awe. Even with the depression these people have been able to give so much to society by way of art, writing, and poetry. She disapproves highly BIPOLAR TREATMENTS 6 of sterilization and euthanasia. A case of Bipolar in 1941 has an author writing about how High class social families have Bipolar within their line.
At the end of the discussion of a certain families Bipolar son the author asks about who, in the family line, they could have sterilized to cut off the manic depression. Right after he asks “…at what cost, of social riches, in the truer sense, would this have been done? ” (Jamison, 1993). Every person, ethically, has a right to live and reproduce. When that cycle is stopped then humanity may never know what was lost.
BIPOLAR TREATMENTS 7 References Adams, F. L. (n. d. ). The Extant Works of Aretaeus, The Cappadocian.By Aretaeus. Retrieved 9 8, 2014, from Digital Hippocrates: http://www. chlt. org/hippocrates/aretaeusEnglish/page. 1. a. php? size=240×320 Barrowclough, C. H. (2006). Treatment development for psychosis and co-occurring substance misuse: A descriptive review. . Journal Of Mental Health, 15(6), 619-632. doi:10. 1080/09638230600998920. Jamison, K. R. (1993). Touched with Fire: Manic-depressive illness and the artistic temperament. New York, NY: Free Press Paperbacks. Retrieved August 8, 2014 Morishita, S. &. (2003). Induction of mania in depression by paroxetine. Human.
Psychopharmacology: Clinical & Experimental, 18(7), 565-568. National Institute of Mental Health. (n. d. ). Bipolar Disorder. Retrieved from National Institute of Mental Health: http://www. nimh. nih. gov/health/topics/bipolar-disorder/index. shtml#part6 Shorter, E. (2009, June). The history of lithium therapy. Retrieved August 8, 2014, from US National Library of Medicine: http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC3712976/ Stephens, S. (2014, August 8). Through the ages, it’s been there. Retrieved from bphope. com: http://www. bphope. com/Item. aspx/162/through-the-ages-its-been-there .