Insulin coma therapy! Sedative packs! Electroshock!! Government mental health service in the 1950's

[Bluebear]

http://www.archive.org/details/mental_hospital

"If you cooperate with those doctors, I think they can do you some good...."

This 1953 film was produced for the Oklahoma State Department of Health in cooperation with the State of Oklahoma Department of Mental Health.
It puts SUCH a happy face on government-ordered mental health therapy, why, I trust them completely now to indefinitely detain 'dangerous' offenders past their prison sentences as the Supreme Court OK'ed this week. :scared: Well, at least Reagan closed the state mental hospitals...and later took
away federal mental health programs, so good luck receiving outpatient therapy unless you are of means. Waddacountry!

[jtracy]

1. Insulin coma, "therapeutic"?

Take it from me, it's anything but. I'd be curious as to how many survived such 'therapy', but I'm sure the official numbers aren't available.

[Bluebear]

2. Welcome to DU, jtracy!

[blondeatlast]

3. I was only 7 when I experienced mine, but I can pretty much assure anyone that there was nothing

therapeutic about it.

[blondeatlast]

4. BTW, welcome to DU! nt

[jtracy]

5. Thanks, Bluebear and blondeatlast

blondeatlast, was it a coma due to too high or too low sugar levels? I was in a diabetic coma for nearly a week at the age of 5 when first diagnosed. I'm assuming the 'insulin coma' used in the mental hospital was the purposeful use of insulin to create hypoglycemia (too low blood sugar levels) in non-diabetics. I've been there as well, and there's no part of it I would want a doctor using on my loved ones.

[blondeatlast]

6. Mine was from hyper--it's how they diagnosed me.

My glucose was over 1000 when I got to the hospital. I'd had no symptoms until the day I fell into the coma--that day, I had insatiable thirst and hunger (and then of course, couldn't eat a thing).

shortly after that, I lost consciousness and was out for a little more than 24 hours.

Happy to meet a fellow survivor!

[Cetacea]

7. Insulin shock is about as theraputic as electro-shock

Seizures are great for the brain!

[texastoast]

8. One of the reasons that we should all be skeptical of Western medicine

This was top of the line "science" at the time.

[Canuckistanian]

9. The "Oklahoma Department of Mental Health."

I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere.