The Shaky Evolution Mental Health Therapies

The Morales Law Firm would like to thank Krista Coleman for sharing this information with us.

THE SHAKY EVOLUTION OF MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIES

From trepanation (boring a hole in the head) to technology, a brief history of mental illness treatments

Then:
Before the Greeks: mental problems thought to be caused by “supernatural” demonic possession.

PRIMITIVE THERAPIES: THE ANCIENTS

• Bathing: Greeks used to cure depression
• Bloodletting: to cure psychosis
• Trepanation: drill a hole in the head to let the demons out
• Hysteria therapy: the wandering womb (Plato’s cure-all for women…soothe the womb, solve the problem)

From 1450-1750: 40,000 to 100,000 executed as witches throughout Europe. Approximately 80% were women

PRE-MODERN: WEIRD THERAPIES (CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT?)

• Insulin coma therapy: load em up with insulin, then wake them up
• Rotational therapy (spin out that illness)
• Hydrotherapy (submerge the patient)
• Mesmerism (magnetize the illness out of the body)
• Malaria therapy (a feverish cure)
• Chemically induced seizures
• Phrenology (bumps on the skull indicated what was wrong)
• And…of course the ever popular….ice pick lobotomy (quite popular into the mid 20th century)
• 50,000: number of lobotomies total in U.S., most between 1949-1952
• 2,500: of the 50,000 estimated number of ice pick lobotomies in U.S.

NOW:

MENTAL HEALTH: YOU THINK IT’S NOT YOUR PROBLEM? THINK AGAIN.

• 1 in 5: American adults experienced a mental health issue: that’s 57.7 million Americans EVERY YEAR.
• 1 in 10: young people experienced a period of major depression
• 1 in 20 Americans lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression
• 10th leading cause of death in U.S.: Suicide.
• 38,000: number of suicide deaths in U.S. annually. That is 2X deaths in U.S. by homicide.

MOVING INTO THE MODERN AGE:

• Psychoanalysis: Enter Sigmund Freud…and “talking” therapy: Freud begat: [all broke from Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Carl Rogers
• Medication: using drugs like lithium
• Electroconvulsive therapy. Shock treatment. First used, 1938.

What we know:
450 million people worldwide have mental problems. 1 in every 16 person on the planet.
50% of all mental problems begin before age 14; 75% before age 25.
20% of young adults have mental problems.
35% of teen girls (7 in 25) have eating disorders.
8 of 100 teens have serious depression issues. [That’s 2 of every 25]
8% of all teens have anxiety disorders
5% have ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder]
3% have ODD [Oppositional Defiant Disorder]
But only 38% of teens get help

Spending on mental health, per person, per year:
• $1.63 globally
• 20 cents in low income countries
• $44.84 in high income countries

But… does modern-day therapy work?: Yes..sometimes…

Success Rates:
• 80 % of the time: with bipolar disorders
• 70 %: panic disorder, depression, OCD
• 60%: schizophrenia

THE FUTURE: WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEETS THERAPY

Automated therapy: interfacing with a computer program
Data mining and machine learning
Robotic companions
Automated emotion detection using video (using a webcam)
Virtual reality therapy: used to treat Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD)

Interesting FACT: How therapists are using Google search data bases. Research shows… people (in the U.S.) feel better in the summer.
• Eating disorder searches are down 37 percent
• Schizophrenia searches decreased 37 percent
• Bipolar searches were down 16 percent
• ADHD searches decreased by 28 percent
• OCD searches were down 18 percent
• Bipolar searches decreased by 18 percent
• Searches for suicide declined 24 percent
• Anxiety searches had the smallest seasonal change – down 7 percent during U.S. summers.

For more information vistit: http://www.bestcounselingdegrees.net/mental-health-therapies/

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