Unit 5 Newspaper Article

The Rockland Daily 

History Of Depression  

By: Megan Koch

Depression is very common nowadays, in fact about 11% of men and 15% of women in Canada will experience some sort of depression through their lifetime. However, no one really thinks about the history of depression, and how patients were treated. Depression was previously known as melancholia. Some of the treatments used to treat melancholia were things such as Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), and Lobotomy. Electroconvulsive therapy is when seizures are electrically induced into patients. ECT is one of the fastest ways to have relief of depression. ECT is in fact still used today, it remains misunderstood by the general public. The procedure's risks and side effects are due to the misuse of equipment, incorrect administration, or improperly trained staff. Of course, in the 1950’s patients died due to improper training, but it’s quite safe nowadays and is only used if pills and other treatments don’t work. Lobotomy is one of the most gruesome treatments to cure depression, unlike ECT. Lobotomy consists of cutting or scraping away most of the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain. It was in America where an Irish mine worker had an iron bar javelined into the front part of his head during an explosion that actually led way to lobotomies. In a lobotomy a sharp ice pick was inserted on top the patient’s eyeballs through the orbit of the eye. Then, gruesomely enough would be moved back and forth, cutting off most connections to the brain.

Most of the gruesome treatments practiced on patients are not done today, they stopped once anti-depressants came out. Nowadays ECT is used only in severe cases, other than that therapy and anti-depressants are used. One thing that in my mind should be changed nowadays is to stop giving patients antidepressants and let them overcome their depression on their own, and only give the pills in very serious cases. Antidepressants are given to many people around the world and cause many side effects.

Bibliography

Unknown. Health Canada . 9 February 2009. 12 May 2014.

—. WEB MD. n.d. 12 May 2014.

—. Wikipedia . n.d. 12 May 2014 .