Mood, Madness, Wellness
My Friday Thread (No. 4)

The Psych Wards of the "Medieval" Islamic World.

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Madness is ancient. Around 10% of all the stone-age skulls unearthed have holes, intentionally, bored into them. One theory is that this procedure was a treatment for, among other things, mental health problems.

It isn't until the 9th-century (AD 872) that we find the first evidence of institutionalized care for people experiencing mental health problems. The maristan (hospital) of Ibn Tulun, Governor of Egypt, can claim to have hosted the first psychiatry ward on the planet.

The maristan (Psych ward) became a feature across the Islamic world. Care for the poor was free: "every patient who claims assistance is fed at the caliph's expense until his cure is completed." Money was also given to patients on discharge.

Some of these early psychiatric hospitals had male and female wards. One Syrian hospital is described as using water features and flowers to "cheer the deranged". Music was also used, therapeutically.

The use of paid musician is a theme, and many of the hospitals seem to have used music therapeutically for patients experiencing mental health problems.

Besides the music and flowers, there were, however, chains and beatings. The therapeutic beating of patients comes from the mistaken idea that one could literally "beat sense into the violently insane."

Visitors were permitted, and the family would come to sit with their relatives. In some places, Edirne for example, people would visit the psychiatric hospital as a good deed, it being "beneficial for the inmates."

Other treatments included drugs. Opium (milk of the poppy) was used as a sedative for patients who were agitated. To treat a patient with Mania, Muhadhdhab ad-Din added "an ample amount of opium" to the patient's drink.

There were also compound drugs known as mufarrih an-nafs (gladening of the self), an early antidepressant. One of the ingredients in the mufarrih an-nafs medication was crushed rubies. Not cheap.

Other treatments involved diet, bloodletting, cupping, baths and creams, all typically aimed at addressing the physical/humoural imbalance thought to underly the mental health problem.