125 Evolution of Mental Health Treatment

Our world went through a “psychopharmacology revolution” between 1950 and 1970. This time involved a shift from psychotherapy and nonpharmacologic somatic therapies to an incline in the reliance of drugs for treatment. This shift was described as changing from psychoanalysis to neurochemistry, or understanding there was scientifical evidence for mental health. The rise of psychopharmacology in the nineteenth century began the process to gain more biological knowledge regarding mental illnesses (Baumeister, 2006).  People who struggle with mental illnesses can live much more fulfilling lives in current society due to new treatment methods such as talk therapy, psychopharmacology, and deinstitutionalization compared to ancient harmful treatments.

In this age of reform, mental health became a priority for the government. Major changes that occurred were the transference of responsibilities to localities, adoption of Community Support Programs enabling community care systems for patients after institutionalization, and the use of Medicaid financing to provide a significant amount of community care costs. The states began to prioritize funding for mental health patients to make treatment seeking easier. This new public mental health system was much more beneficial, and humane compared to how state-run hospitals were previously run (Hogan, 1999).

The stigma around mental illness has evolved over time. In ancient times, most people did not even believe mental illnesses were a real thing or they believed it was due to supernatural causes. Since they believed it was caused by evil spirits, their treatment methods included prayers, rituals, exorcisms in an attempt to drive away evil spirits. The Middle Ages perspective of mental illness was based more on religion and superstition. Individuals were isolated from society and stigmatized. Their treatments included insane asylums and torture with bad cases. The 19th century was when developments began to be made, and psychotherapy and psychopharmacology were introduced.

Therapy has evolved into forms of medication and cognitive and behavioral therapies. Combination therapy of using different methods has proven to be the most effective and long lasting (Cox, 2018). Treatment seeking has increased dramatically over the past 20 years because of newer and more effective treatments that have come to light (Johnson, 2021). Psychopharmacology began to flourish in the twentieth century and any drug that had a psychotropic action was being tested on mental patients. Chlorpromazine is a drug that was used in surgery for a calming effect. Physiatrists’ discovery of this for mental patients was a major step in the development in modern antipsychotics. Iproniazid is an antidepressant drug that was originally used to treat tuberculosis but became effective for people with depression. In the later 20th century, the deinstitutionalization movement led to many psychiatric hospitals closing. Community based care was prioritized instead.  Psychotherapy is a talking based approach to work through mental issues. This gained popularity and proved to help patients control and manage their symptoms( Mind, 2024).