oh and i have worked in many diffirent areas of mental health from Max Security, Med Security, IPCU, to acute admissions and rehab and i can GUARANTEE they do not use this approach anymore within the western world. Along with mechanical restraints and strait jackets. All nurses are trainned to deal with patients in a perfectly ethical and dignifying manner. Its ashame that the knowledge of mental health was so small in those days, compared to what we know now and the approaches we can use to benefit a larger recovery rate for service users.

ive heard stories about ice baths, i was under the impression that they were used in the same way as ECT (Electro-Convulsive Therapy), where with ECT you put an electrode to each temple to induce a fit, so basically it is just like rebooting a computer, and oddly enough i have met PATIENTS who swear by this therapy so it must work for some people, on the otherhand i hava whitnessed patients having dramatic deterioration to there mental health as well but its a last resort with alot of patients once all meds have been tried.

But apparantly ice baths had the same effect but they didnt have the same anisthetics and muscle relaxants when they were in use, so it was branded as un-ethical(obviously). They were not kept in the bathtubs for a long period of time, maybe just submerged for a few seconds so it shocks the system just like ECT.