Soranus of Ephesus

(c. 98-138), a physician who practised medicine in the town of his birth, recommended that people suffering from mania should be treated with the alkaline waters of his town (Darton, 1999; Thompson, 2006). These waters contained high levels of lithium salts, and the therapeutic use of lithium salts was rediscovered by John Cade, an Australian psychiatrist, in the 1940s (Colp, 2000; Rush, 1988; Shorter, 1997). Soranus felt that madmen in general should be housed in light and airy conditions (Kyziridis, 2005), that corporal punishment should not be part of therapy, and that the patient’s social environment had to be understood to gain a comprehensive assessment of the condition. Soranus also described delirium (Vinken, Bruyn, Klawans & Frederiks, 1985), hysterical suffocation (Keyser & Irby-Massey, 2008), phrenitis, lethargy, mania, melancholy and homosexuality in both sexes as an “affliction of a diseased mind” (Mendelson, 2003). He recognised that on occasion restraint was necessary, but urged that it should be with the use of soft bindings that did not injure the patient (Millon, 2004). Soranus believed that the way to cure mentally ill patients was to put them into peaceful surroundings and have them read, discuss, and participate in the production of plays in order to create order in their thinking and offset their depression (Cockerham, 2000). Furthermore he felt it was not of therapeutic value to disagree with a madman’s delusions, but thought that gradual persuasion around to reality was of much more benefit (Nutton, 2004).

Soranus of Ephesus

References:

Cockerham, W. C. (2000). Sociology of mental disorder. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice Hall.

Colp, R. (2000). History of psychiatry. In Sadock, B.J & Sadock, V.A. (eds.), Comprehensive text book of psychiatry. (7^th edition). Baltimore, MD.: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Darton, K. (1999). Notes on the history of mental health care. Mind: London. Retrieved from http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Factsheets/History+of+mental+health/Notes+on+the+History+of+Mental+Health+Care.htm

Keyser, P.T., & Irby-Massey, G.L. (2008). The encyclopedia of ancient natural scientists: the Greek tradition and its many heirs. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kyziridis, T.C. (2005). Notes on the history of schizophrenia. German Journal of Psychiatry 8 (4): 42-8.

Mendelson, G. (2003). Homosexuality and psychiatric nosology. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 37: 678-683.

Millon, T. (2004). Masters of the mind: Exploring the story of mental illness from ancient times to the new millennium. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Nutton, V. (2004). Ancient medicine. New York, NY: Routledge.

Rush, A.J. (1988). Clinical diagnosis of mood disorders. Clinical Chemistry 34, 5: 813-821.

Shorter, E. (1997). A history of psychiatry: from the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Thompson, M.L. (2006). Mental illness (Health and medical issues today). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Vinken, P.J., Bruyn, G.W., Klawans, H.L., & Frederiks, J.A.M. (Eds.) (1985). Neurobehavioural disorders. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.