HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Opunake Times, 24 August 1948, Page 2

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

MENTAL ILLNESS (By the Department of Health) Most thinking people know that mental illness is simply a form of ailment that attacks the brain instead of some other part of the body. Sometimes the cure for these ailments is quick, ja other cases slow. Sometimes as with many other bodily illnesses the patients never fully recover Again,.as with so many illnesses, early recognition . and ueatment save complete! breakdowns in some forms of mental illness. “Shock” treatment for mental patients is an interesting and often completely efficacious development. This may be by electric shock, special dosages of insulin, or heavy vitamin intake. There are cases where artificially induced fever overcomes the effects of mental illness due to infection. And in other degrees and types of mental” trouble newly discovered drugs work wonders. The result of. oil this is that there’s a seven out of ten chance of recovery from mental illness nowadays. But tbe earlier the signs of approaching mental illness are detected, the/ better change there is of being one of the seven. Don’t delay in arranging for a consultation’ with a mental specialist, .or •> diagnostic clinic in our cities Nor need you fear the treatment. To the unfamiliar, electric shock treatment may sound dreadful, but its • administration is skilled and safe, and in suitable cases it’s quicker than shock by injections. Nothing unpleasant is felt, an y no memory afterwards of anything from the moment the current ip switched on. A series of these shocks spread over a per-' iod of weeks may bring about a complete recovery .of sanity. The public has an instinctive fear of electricity—which ordinarily is just as well. But the current, used for- shock treatment of mental patients v is scientifically regulated so as not to do harm. Its effect is one of, the marvels of science. It shocks the tottering brain back to sanity and is not an unpleasant process to the patient. <

If you suspect signs of mental illness- i» your household,! , get along to an appropriate doctor ag soon as possible.