Abstract
Historically, treatments for severe psychoses and affective disorders were nonexistent, and patients with mental disorders were transferred to asylums for public safety. This deficiency in treatment inspired the inception of somatic therapies, of which electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was the most efficacious. This paper will outline the birth of ECT, the controversies leading to its decline, and the subsequent resurgence back into practice.
Highlights
Treatments for severe psychoses and affective disorders were nonexistent, and patients with mental disorders were transferred to asylums for public safety
Before the 20th century, psychiatry as a field of medicine offered little to individuals suffering from severe psychoses or affective disorders
Treatments for mental illness were scarce, the public perceived the mentally ill as dangerous, and individuals with mental disorders were involuntarily transferred from their homes into dirty, overcrowded public institutions, supposedly for treatment and public safety.[1,2]
Summary
Treatments for severe psychoses and affective disorders were nonexistent, and patients with mental disorders were transferred to asylums for public safety.
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