took up the cause of the mentally ill in the mid 1800s, found disturbed individuals living in sordid conditions, "confined in cages, closets, cellars, stalls and pens: chained, naked, beaten with rods and lashed into obedience." She worked to help these people live a more normal life. (Goode pg. 55) A dismal outlook for schizophrenia was dramatically changed in the 1950s with the development of the first antipsychotic drug, Chlorpromazine. Since then, more that a dozen other similar-acting antipsychotic medications have been developed. These drugs work by blocking binding sites of dopamine, which is a main factor in schizophrenia. Chlorpromazine was first used as an antihistamine. Then, it was found to calm hyperactive schizophrenic patients out of withdrawal and reduced major symptoms of the disease. A lot of false medication was used before the discovery of chlorpromazine. An insulin coma, as one example, was used to relieve most symptoms by overloading the patients body with insulin. This helped some patients, because it calmed them down, but killed most of them. Electroconvulsive therapy, where brief pulses of electronegativity are passed through the brain, was also used. It was thought that using this type of treatment, symptoms could be reduced or eliminated, but it did neither. This only helped the severely depressed and only calmed them for a little while. Doctors also attempted a frontal lobotomy, which was a surgical removal of the front parts of the brain. A frontal lobotomy was done because it was thought that the front part of the brain was responsible for schizophrenia. This did nothing but make a quieter patient. These practices were commonly used to try to suppress the main symptoms of schizophrenia. Mainly, these practices did nothing but torture the patient and make him or her suffer extremely. (Young 67-68) Many schizophrenics will carry on conversations with voices or people who are not really there. The voices may ...
