One of the most important milestones in the treatment of schizophrenia has been the recognition that mental disorders are indeed treatable illnesses—not the result of upbringing or character flaws in those affected.
Following, a brief overview of prejudice and progress in schizophrenia treatment from the 17th century to today:
Native American shamans, or medicine men, summoned supernatural powers to treat the mentally ill, incorporating rituals of atonement and purification.
Witchcraft and demonic possession were common explanations for mental illness. The Salem witchcraft trials sentenced 19 people to hanging.
Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather (1663-1728) broke with popular belief by advancing physical explanations for mental illnesses.
Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) became one of the earliest advocates of humane treatment for the mentally ill with the publication of Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon Diseases of the Mind, the first American textbook of psychiatry.
There were approximately 24 hospitals – totaling only 2,561 beds – available for treating mental illness in the United States.
Sigmund Freud visited America and lectured on psychoanalysis at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Harry Stack Sullivan's ward for schizophrenic patients at Sheppard-Pratt Hospital demonstrates the impact of a therapeutic milieu when patients are able to be returned to the community.
Psychiatrists began to inject insulin to induce shock and temporary coma as a treatment for schizophrenia.
Egas Moniz published an account of the first human frontal lobotomy. Between 1936 and the mid-1950s, an estimated 20,000 of these surgical procedures were performed on American mental patients.
Electrotherapy (applying electric current to the brain) was first used in American hospitals to treat mental illnesses.
Fountain House in NYC begins psychiatric rehabilitation for mentally ill persons.
The first conventional antipsychotic drug, Thorazine® (chlorpromazine), was introduced to treat patients with schizophrenia and other major mental disorders.
Conventional antipsychotic drugs, such as haloperidol, were first used to control outward (positive) symptoms of psychosis, bringing a significant measure of calm and order to psychiatric wards.
422,000 individuals were hospitalized for psychiatric care in the United States.
Mass deinstitutionalization (discharge of patients from the hospital to the community) began. Patients and their families were left to their own resources due to the lack of outpatient programs for rehabilitation and reintegration back into society.
Rise of managed care—short-stay hospitalization with community treatment—became the standard of care for mental illness.
The first atypical antipsychotic, Clozaril® (clozapine), was introducted for patients with
treatment-resistant/intolerant schizophrenia.
The 1st first-line of the atypical antipsychotic drugs is introduced. It is the 1st new first-line antipsychotic drug in almost 20 years. RISPERDAL® (risperidone) becomes available in the United States.
RISPERDAL® CONSTA® (risperidone) Long-Acting Injection becomes the only long-acting form of the atypical antipsychotic drugs available in the United States.
A new atypical, INVEGA® (paliperidone), becomes available in the United States.
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