Why Is Mental Illness So Hard to Treat?

摘要

"The last quarter century has seen many forward strides in the management of patients with mental disease. During this period modes of therapy have been available that are far superior to the old-time method of whirling patients on wheels or ducking them into cold water." So begins a 1954 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the calming effects of reserpine, a compound derived from an Indian plant, on psychotic patients in a California mental hospital.