John Libbey Eurotext




Biological treatment in psychiatry between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century
l'Information Psychiatrique. Volume 86, Number 6, 539-47, juin-juillet 2010, Histoire de la psychiatrie
Résumé Texte intégral
Author(s) : Alexandre Baratta, Alexandre Morali
Summary : Over the centuries, the history of medicine has been nourished by reciprocal influences between the use of various therapies (physical or biological) and anatomy and physiopathological hypotheses: mental illness has not escaped this trend. By limiting our research to biological therapeutics alone and for a very specific period, we wanted to discover the means (molecules or active principles) specifically used between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. During this period, physicians used substances, first of a natural origin and then later synthetic, with the advent of synthetic chemistry. Therapeutic goals, as well as the pathophysiological hypotheses behind these disorders by which these treatments are expected to act, have subsequently evolved. Thus, the initial search for the sedation of agitation has gradually given way, without ever completely disappearing, to search for more targeted effects such as antipsychotic action for example. This review has prompted us to compare our current practices with humility and to ask the essential question: what do we in fact treat in mental illness and on what pathophysiological basis?
Keywords : pharmacopsychology, drug therapy, psychiatry, history, evolution, 19 ^th century, 20 ^th century

Biological treatment in psychiatry between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century