Page 23 - Delaware Medical Journal - December 2016
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HISTORY OF MEDICINE
Psychiatric treatment prior to 1955 seemed to be at a standstill. All kinds of treatments, including surgical ones, were used ineffectively. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a new treatment – chlorpromazine – created a worldwide revolution. Here is what we saw in Delaware. It was not
much different in the rest of the world.
Patients improved and were rapidly discharged from mental institutions causing workforce reductions. I was sitting on a state employee job application evaluation committee and witnessed these events. It was also exciting to see rapid changes in administration at the state hospital. Since what happened in Delaware also happened nationally, this was a national event and should be recognized as such. The following few pages are to remember the details. Major changes made psychiatry more of an accepted medical specialty. Psychiatrists are no longer “outsiders.” I would be glad to answer any questions about the information presented here.
– Aydin Bill, MD
treatment to psychiatry. Psychiatry was hungry for something
to treat patients and get them out of chains. The new idea immediately became popular and gave birth to many similar ideas including supportive therapies, primal scream therapy, conditioning therapies, Gestalt therapy, reality therapy, cognitive therapy, and existential therapy. Pavlov studied animal behavior. Emil Kreapelin studied schizophrenia at the end of
the century, and in 1911, Eugen Bleuler published clear and descriptive diagnostic studies of schizophrenia. But patients remained in chains. The desperation among therapists to do mental illness was a symptom of underlying bacterial infections and removed infected teeth, tonsils, stomachs, gallbladders,
a cure. Electrospasmotherapy, insulin shock, and opium treatments were common.
Psychiatry was not very visible in Delaware when the 20th century arrived. Delaware State Hospital, the oldest psychiatric
it was not considered a hospital. It was an extension of the alms houses. The location was well chosen – just a few miles from Wilmington between the Christina River and DuPont Avenue. The population of the hospital grew rapidly from the original hospital was used by patients for agricultural activities, so the patient population grew, the number of staff members also grew. In order to handle both emergencies and routine services, it was decided that some staff members should live on the hospital grounds, and staff houses were built, making staff feel like
they were part of a family. The superintendent also lived on the
was an early proponent of this plan. He became superintendent
Delaware State Hospital had a sick ward for the patients. Many well-known community doctors came to the hospital to treat those in the inpatient ward. I remember, among many others, Borkowski, Alfred Bacon, and James Walsh. There was also
a dental unit and an operating room. The staff said that when
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