Assignment 4- Quinn Andrews

This is the history of medicine in a nutshell. What was once popular, is now barbaric. That is why I find it to be so powerful and, in a way, hopeful. In the past, we would stick leeches to people's skin to cure them of disease. Would any sane person do this now? No, it's unclean and unimaginably weird. Yet the same could be said of treatments today. We pump cancer victims full of chemicals to kill their cells, hoping that most of the cancerous cells died as well. After, we blast them with radiation, which scorches and kills cells; radiation could very well be the reason they had cancer in the first place. Couldn't that be seen as horrible in the future? Mental health has only really emerged with legitimate understanding and compassion. In the 1940s, lobotomies were common and rather famous (like in this picture). The most famous American practitioner, Walter Freeman, hammered an ice pick into the skull above the eyes and wiggled it around- severing the connections between the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain. It was so common it was prescribed for headaches. It often left people catatonic or unchanged, but had enough success to be considered a break-through. Yet now, we cringe at the thought of a lobotomy. Hindsight is 20/20 and we often believe we won't make the same mistakes. Yet, anti-psychotics change brain chemistry to the point of an altered personality and can have debilitating side effects. Are anti-psychotics the next lobotomies? Just a little interesting fact- we still use lobotomies, renamed lobectomies,to cure severe epilepsy. They scan the brain and carefully incise part of the temporal lobe. This is seen as less dangerous than severe, repeated seizures that can cause permanent damage. Anyway, back on topic, we continually do what we think is best to cure ourselves. When it doesn't work of the costs outweigh the benefits we throw it out and label it barbaric. Yet we keep what works. Early forms of vaccines can be traced back to times of the Black Plague in Italy. Lobectomies are seen as saving grace when appropriate, but not to treat depression or schizophrenia- those now require anti-psychotics and anti-depressants respectively. This is amazing. This gives me hope that one day we'll be able to live sickness free without awful treatments. After all, when we keep improving, how much better will medicine get? Here's a cool link about the history of lobotomies:http://io9.gizmodo.com/5787430/the-strange-sad-history-of-the-lobotomy