Rather than providing comfort, there was a time when common medical practices made matters worse, and there was simply no other alternative. We’ve compiled 21 practices that are thankfully no more thanks to modern innovations.
Lobotomies as Mental Health Treatment
During the mid-20th century, lobotomies were a popular treatment for various mental illnesses. Surgeons would sever connections in the brain’s frontal lobe, hoping to calm disruptive behaviors. Tragically, this often resulted in permanent brain damage, leaving many patients in a vegetative state or significantly impairing their emotional and intellectual capacities. Some patients also died from the extreme procedure.
Bloodletting Was a Common Cure
About 3,000 years ago, and first practiced by the Egyptians, bloodletting became essential for treating just about any ailment. It didn’t matter if it was fever or epilepsy; physicians believed it helped balance the body’s humors, so they frequently recommended it. Some even used leeches for this, and as BCMJ shares, most treatments were futile and weakened patients instead.
Dentistry Involved No Pain Relief
Centuries ago, when anyone went to the dentist to get rid of a decayed tooth, there was no anesthesia or relief treatment to save them from the excruciating pain. Dental tools were also primitive, and recovery took a long time. To reduce the pain, many had to smoke marijuana or henbane or even drink opium.
The Mystery of Childbirth Fever
During the 18th and 19th centuries, childbirth fever, also called ‘puerperal fever,’ ravaged the West, leaving countless mothers dead and many more confused. Eventually, it was discovered that doctors, due to the neglect of simple sanitary practices like handwashing, brought in bacteria from autopsy rooms straight into the labor room, infecting many birthing women.
Surgery Without Anesthesia
Imagine undergoing surgery with the patient fully conscious and feeling every incision. Before anesthesia, this was a stark reality, and the unbearable pain often caused patients to go into shock or even die during the procedure. Surgeons also raced against time to finish as quickly as possible to prevent excessive blood loss and trauma, which also led to fatal accidents.
High Maternal and Infant Mortality Rates
In earlier centuries, childbirth was fraught with danger, leading to high rates of death among mothers and infants. Without the benefits of modern obstetric care, any complication could prove fatal, with hemorrhage and infection being particularly common. These tragic outcomes underscored the urgent need for advancements in prenatal and infant care.
Treating Syphilis With Mercury
Treating syphilis involved the use of mercury, which was administered through ointments, pills, or even injections. Now known for its toxic properties, mercury would often cause mouth ulcers, tooth loss, and neurological damage, exacerbating the patient’s suffering and leading to an even more painful decline in health.
The Use of Cocaine in Medications
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cocaine was an ingredient in various medical concoctions, praised for its numbing and euphoric effects. Widely used in products ranging from toothache drops to tonics, its addictive nature wasn’t well understood until it was too late, resulting in widespread abuse and devastation.
Public Executions as Anatomical Sources
With the scarcity of legal cadavers, medical schools in the 18th and 19th centuries often resorted to using the bodies of executed criminals for dissection and study. This macabre practice highlighted the desperate need for anatomical knowledge, which was critical for surgical advancements, but it also sparked ethical debates that would eventually lead to changes in how bodies were sourced for medical research.
No Vaccinations Against Common Diseases
Before vaccines, infectious diseases like smallpox, polio, and measles ran rampant, claiming lives with devastating regularity. Entire communities would be decimated during outbreaks. Eventually, there was an urgent need for vaccinations, which now play a crucial role in public health by providing immunity without the risk of contracting the disease.
Radium as a Health Tonic
During the early 20th century, radium was marketed as a cure-all for various conditions, including arthritis and even aging. However, its radioactive properties led to numerous health problems, including cancer and bone decay. The tragic consequences for those who ingested radium-laced products were profound, leading to stricter regulations on the use of radioactive materials.
The Prevalence of Lice and Fleas
Historically, lice and fleas were more than just irritants; they were carriers of deadly diseases like the plague and typhus. People suffered immensely under infestations that were difficult to control due to poor hygiene and crowded living conditions, and this made these pests a deadly force feared for the spread of epidemics.
The Treatment of ‘Hysteria’
Assigned broadly to women, ‘hysteria’ was a diagnosis used to describe a variety of psychological symptoms, applied equally, for instance, to anxiety or irritability. Treatments ranged from the bizarre to the invasive, including forced bed rest and the infamous pelvic massages. All these reflected patriarchal biases and misunderstandings of female health.
Herbs and Superstitions in Medicine
Herbal remedies and superstitious practices dominated pre-scientific medicine, with treatments often based more on lore than on empirical evidence. While some herbs did offer relief, others were useless or harmful. The reliance on superstitions could delay patients from seeking effective treatments, unsurprisingly exacerbating their conditions.
The Stigma of Leprosy
Feared for its disfiguring symptoms, leprosy was a highly stigmatized condition. Sufferers were isolated in leper colonies far from society, and this practice even persisted into modern times. The segregation of lepers stemmed from misconceptions about its transmission and a profound misunderstanding of its bacterial cause.
Consumption Treated With Fresh Air
‘Taking the air’ was considered a primary treatment for tuberculosis before the discovery of the bacterium that caused it. Patients were sent to sanatoriums where fresh air was believed to cure them. However, without effective drug treatments demonstrating the limitations of such palliative care, many succumbed to the disease.
No Understanding of Blood Types
The concept of blood types was unknown until the early 20th century, making early blood transfusions a dangerous gamble. Incompatible blood transfusions often led to fatal reactions, which highlighted the need for medical research that would eventually lead to a life-saving understanding of blood compatibility.
Ice Picks for Psychiatric Treatments
Used in a procedure called a transorbital lobotomy, the ice pick was a grim tool for treating psychiatric conditions. The procedure, which involved hammering the pick through the eye socket, often left patients permanently disabled or drastically altered—a dark reminder of the primitive state of mental health care.
Limited Diagnostic Tools
Diagnosing diseases was once based on intuition and superficial symptoms, without the aid of modern imaging technologies like X-rays or MRIs. The lack of precise diagnostic tools led to misdiagnoses and treatments that could be ineffective or harmful. Looking at this, we can be thankful for the critical role of technological advancements in medical diagnostics.
The Lack of Antibiotics
Life before antibiotics wasn’t exactly comfortable, as the simplest of infections could lead to death. Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin in 1928, as well as subsequent antibiotics, marked a monumental shift in medical treatment, transforming once-fatal diseases into manageable conditions and dramatically reducing mortality rates worldwide.
Painful Treatments for Hemorrhoids
Historical treatments for hemorrhoids were not only painful but often barbaric, involving hot irons, needles, threads, and caustic substances applied to shrink or remove the swollen veins. This was especially common in ancient Greece, and before these painful treatments, the more enticing honey, beer, and myrrh were the go-to cures.
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