Emily Leister

Treating Mental Illnesses with Neuroscience

Approximately one in five adults in the United States experiences some aspect of mental illness in a given year, with one out of twenty-five of them reporting that the mental illness is “serious” and “substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities” (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2018). In the past, mental health disorders and disabilities have been viewed in a negative light, and treatment for these afflictions has been lacking, if not entirely ineffective. Historically, patients were placed into isolation, often in insane asylums, where they were subjected to repetitive, reprehensible tests. Their skulls were drilled in the process of trephination, blood was drained from their bodies in bloodletting, and bodies were repeatedly purged of their “evil spirits” through ritual religious means. After this heinous poking and prodding came slight medical advances, and many patients were subjected to lobotomies, insulin coma therapy, or Metrazol therapy, in which individuals’ brains were cut, injected with compounds, or compromised in other ways in a vain attempt to “fix” their problems (Hussung, 2016). Despite these somewhat progressive medical treatments, mental illnesses were not cured, and researchers had to look further to discover the proper means of treatment.