Outdated Medical Treatments Used Throughout History

Lobotomies

While we still have quite a long way to go in the field of mental health, it is unconscionable the way patients were once treated. The use of straight jackets, lobotomies, and isolation were commonplace treatments to help control the behaviors associated with disorders not fully understood.

A lobotomy is a surgical procedure that severs the connection of the prefrontal cortex to the rest of the brain, intended to help calm the patient, without altering their personality or intelligence. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for many complex brain functions, including decision making, reasoning, personal expression, and following social norms. They were performed for severe cases of what society now recognizes as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. After the surgery, many patients were easier to control, but had little to no emotion, and were basically rendered vegetables. Some did not survive the surgery, and others committed suicide soon after.

This controversial surgery was criticized by books such as One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which later became a popular film. The first lobotomy was performed in the United States in 1946 by Walter Freeman, and they were still commonly performed as late as the eighties. Once the transorbital lobotomy, where an icepick went through the eye socket to sever the connection instead of drilling through the skull, was introduced, they started being performed as an outpatient procedure at doctor’s offices and mental health facilities. While they are not common practice today, they are still legal in the United States.

Keep reading to unveil more outdated medical treatments used throughout history.