Can insanity be cured by baths and diet?

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Baths for the Insane

Q. Can insanity be cured by baths and diet?

A. Certain forms of insanity are greatly bene­fited by the proper baths. This is particularly true of melancholia and mania. Acute forms of insanity generally recover under careful treat­ment, including baths, proper regulation of the diet, etc. Baths are now administered in all well­ organized insane asylums.

The prolonged neutral bath is of special value in the treatment of insanity. In a case of acute mania the neutral bath is superior to all remedies as a means of producing sleep.

The patient is placed in the bath suspended in a hammock and is kept in the bath until he becomes quiet. At first a very prolonged ap­plication may be necessary; two or three or even ten or twelve hours, but the patient sooner or later becomes quiet and falls into a refreshing sleep. The neutral bath is now recognized as the most valuable of all means to promote recovery in these cases. The shower bath and douche, both hot and cold, are also highly useful measures in various forms of insanity. At the present time drugs are very little used in the treatment of in­sane patients. In the New York State Hospital for the insane the electric light bath, the shower bath and the neutral bath are the principal meas­ures of treatment employed and are found to be so effective that drugs of all sorts have almost fallen into disuse.

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