Treatment for Hysteria...

Nurses General Nursing

Published

From one of my antique medical books (mid 1800s)

THE TREATMENT OF HYSTERICS: Hysteria is a disease to which every woman is liable: and which every physician will be, some time or other, called upon to treat. Most of you will find it very hard, in most instances, to distinguish between hysteria and organic disease, for it, in many instances, mimics exactly grave structural diseases. There is no difficulty in forming a diagnosis when you meet with a real hysterical attack, attended with screaming and groaning and kicking.

When you are called in to treat a young girl with a hysterical attack, there are three things which you had better do: (1) Institute at once firm pressure in the neighborhood of both ovaries. This is very apt to quiet the patient at once. (2) Administer an emetic. I have found that a woman who is well under the action of an emetic has not the opportunity to do anything else than be thoroughly nauseated. Give a full dose of Ipecac, with one grain of tartar emetic. (3) And this method of controlling the spasm will often act charmingly-take a good-sized lump of ice and press it right down upon the nape of the neck. This produces quiet by its powerful impression upon the whole nervous system.

When an attack is entirely under control, the best method of preventing the occurrence of another attack is to administer a full dose of assafetida-not two or three grain doses, but ten grains all at once-[Dr. Wm. Godell, in Clinical News]

(all punctuation is as in the book, IOW it isn't my fault!)

**Medical Recorder/Ohio 1879 by JW Hamilton, MD and JF Baldwin, MD Volume IV Columbus, Ohio/Cott & Hann, Publishers Page 501 & 502

This book is priceless. I love it, it is loaded with fun stuff such as the above. There is an article on treating alcoholism. Several docs beat up on another for prescribing low doses of alcohol to suppress alcoholism. They just don't see the benefit. In 50 attempts to cure one of too much whiskey, low doses of alcohol just doesn't seem to help.

Go figure.

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BTW... anyone interested in "hydro-therapy" for mental illness from the 1930s? That is when you spray the mentally ill patient with streams of hot and cold water for treatment of his illness. The number of streams is in order form via the MD.

This is in a nursing textbook I have.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Mine is normally cured momentarily after report is done.

~faith,

Timothy.

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Mine is normally cured momentarily after report is done.

~faith,

Timothy.

Yeah, but what does the lump of ice do for you???? :wink2:

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BTW... anyone interested in "hydro-therapy" for mental illness from the 1930s? That is when you spray the mentally ill patient with streams of hot and cold water for treatment of his illness. The number of streams is in order form via the MD.

This is in a nursing textbook I have.

I saw one of those before in the hospital museum!

Hysteria, huh. LOL! :lol2:

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I saw one of those before in the hospital museum!

Hysteria, huh. LOL! :lol2:

Kinda puts "practicing medicine" in a whole new light, eh? :smokin:

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Specializes in LTC.

Just think how many treatments we use today will be laughed at 100 years from now...:cool:

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It's totally hysterical. :p

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Just think how many treatments we use today will be laughed at 100 years from now...:cool:

I collect antique medical books and love them all dearly. Believe me, I have thought about what will be laughed at 100 years from now. Mostly, I am quite sure psychiatry will be the most laughed at. I believe neurology will be a close 2nd.

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