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Recommended Treatment

Recommended Treatment

A waterlogged note listing a woman's recommended treatments from 1971 deteriorates on the floor on one of the wards. They are:

Haldol
Thorazine
Lithium in addition to a medium high dosage
EST (electroshock therapy) as a calming measure if she gets out of hand. Daily if necessary.
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You have to be a nurse to appreciate that these are some heavy medications...and to have EST on top of it???
Tessa
Fri 12-03-2010
Good Lord she would be a zombie on all that stuff!
TootUncommon
Fri 12-03-2010
Yikes, indeed, that is a pretty heavy load of medications.
Ŗivẹt
Fri 12-03-2010
Quite the shopping list.
Full Fathom Five
Fri 12-03-2010
A calming measure....if she needs it?!? The Thorazine alone should have made her "manageable", but with Haldol AND EST? And the Lithium amplifies the others. She must have really been in bad shape. Poor lady!
She was no doubt a zombie, if not out cold after this!
Junkyardave
Fri 12-03-2010
I have some Thorazine pills, that i used for my dog. I found out that i still had them som weeks ago.

Thanks for a new gallery! This made my weekend good.
Norway
Fri 12-03-2010
I wonder if this poor soul lived to tell her tales of her days at Norwich!?
LucieLou
Fri 12-03-2010
It's amazing the things that are left behind. Excellent shot, really shows the history of the place.
EchoRose
Fri 12-03-2010
Hopfully no one has to go thru that any more.
Ferdy
Sat 12-04-2010
was there a mental ward there?
coco
Sat 12-04-2010
It really is interesting to find something that illustrates the treatments of yesterday.
redinkreign
Sat 12-04-2010
Fascinating. 1971 - Nixon was President & Vietnam War was still raging, That note was there. All the events & history that has happened since, that note remained there. Nixon, Ford, Carter, Regan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, & Obama all held office while that note was there.
Larry D
Sat 12-04-2010
I hope she found peace ultimately.
A D Nilsen
Sat 12-04-2010
Nicely put, A D Nilsen.

EST, daily if necessary? DAILY?!?!?! Good Lord. Poor woman.
Kathy W.
Sat 12-04-2010
Thank Heavens modern "EST" is largely done through precision use of magnets. 1970s EST recommended with drugging someone that heavily just might suggest an individual (schizophrenic?) with some violent tendencies.
StLGirl
Sat 12-04-2010
Thanks Mr. Motts for blanking out the doctor's name and the patient's name in the interests of confidentiality. It would be upsetting if a member of the family were to come across the photo online with the patient's name shown (highly unlikely but still...). It is amazing that confidential records, showing doctor and patient names, were left lying around. I wonder what it says below Daily if necessary....looks like Booth 3 or Tooth 3 quiet etc.??
BKW Ontario
Sat 12-04-2010
I thought EST was abandoned after the sixties?
Necrosis
Sun 12-05-2010
Nope, about a million people still receive electroshock every year.
Motts
Sun 12-05-2010
The funny thing is for some really psychotic patients those drugs don't do shit. & ECT/EST can be really beneficial in some cases, also lobotomies are still performed in some parts of the world, I think England being one of them.. but obviously in a more humane way.
EricaM
Mon 12-06-2010
so! sad.
ginberry
Wed 12-08-2010
ECT is very benficial and much more humanely done with concious sedation (medication with an amnesic effect).
Fla. Gator
Wed 12-08-2010
It is also illegal to administer involuntary ECT (at least in the US), which itself makes an enormous difference. I've mostly only read of it being used for extreme cases of depression, in which all other treatments have already failed.
Alex J
Sat 12-11-2010
Thank God we don't live in that era of "One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest". Residents may still be resistive to treatment, but they are involved in their recovery. ECT can be beneficial, even today, for some. I have seen it make a non-functional person functional.
pegasus64
Sat 12-11-2010
Serenity now, insanity later!
pajeff
Sun 12-12-2010
Thorazine for the dog?? Poor dog!!
Daphoenyx
Mon 12-13-2010
some of the side effects of haldol are more dangerous than the actaul problem its trying to cure this treatment seems barbaric and archaic
karen burton
Tue 12-14-2010
Very interesting but I agree with BKW about blocking out the name of the patient and Dr since I work in Medical records in a Dr's office personally I don't care how many years ago it was I wouldn't want anyone I know or myself to be seen by all. Yes , pt confidentiality is very important!!! Its no one's business really. Its a very sad read. Just think if they did that to alot of patients back in the day. All those medications and EST wow. How very very sad. Interesting but very sad. I hope that woman did find peace sometime. I hope she got to leave that place but one never knows does one. Esp in those days.
blue lamp
Sat 12-18-2010
It did not work on the dog. She got it from a vetrinarian beacouse she was afraid thunder.
Norway
Wed 12-22-2010
UNFORTUNATELY people still undergo Electric Shock Therapy, and Doctors still prescribe Thorazine , Haldol, and Lithium. I work in Health Care and I know that these practices still exist today because of my job and because of personal reasons. Its sad. I really don't see electric shock therapy as productive, and those medicines are poison. They do horrible things to your body and blood.
Ginger Floyd
Fri 12-24-2010
Such heavy drugs in addition to Electroshock Therapy? “. . if she gets out of hand. Daily if necessary.”?
I tend to be suspicious of anyone given so much power as doctors looking after possibly involuntary patients. It could have been that she was violent enough that she *had* to be drugged like that just so she wouldn't become a danger. But the last sentence makes me question if they were just trying to keep her quiet rather than treat her. Drug her up so she won't cause trouble, then stick her in the corner somewhere.
Though, to be fair, I know more about treating physical problems than I do mental ones.
Mirror
Thu 01-06-2011
Wow... I wonder if this woman had been in there for years, just building up a tolerance for the psycho-therapeutic drugs listed here, until her system was so used to them all that she needed so much in a single day. This is a monstrous combination, one which would knock most of us out for days. Then shock treatment on top of it... sheesh!
Rekrats
Fri 01-14-2011
Unfortunately there is a mentality amongst those that work in health care that if a resident's behavior is annoying to them then it must be to the other residents as well and must be silenced--even a simple whimper repeated 20 times. The majority of the time those drugs are used for the purpose of keeping residents quiet. It's selfish and sadly still common today. Walk down a hallway in any nursing home and you will see residents lined up in their wheelchairs, leaning over, drooling and obviously drugged to the gills.
Kattoo
Mon 01-17-2011
I hope that whoever the lady was that had these things ordered for her REALLY needed them. It seems like facilities are trying to get away from the 'you're being loud/annoying/etc. so I'm going to drug you up' mentality, but there are still places out there that go for the meds before trying anything else first.
sarcasmforthemasses
Sun 01-23-2011
I had ECT's done, during that time I had a hard time remembering things. And I just got out of Rainbow and they are going to shut that down too, but all in all I now am having a hard time with remember anything. When I look through these albums I can't stop thinking of the struggles that I go through. I tell others that I have met, that every day is a recovery day. Between my voices and not knowing whats going on I have been fighting to keep out of the state hospital. I thank Opacity for opening ppls eyes.
Sad One
Sun 03-27-2011
I remember my grandmother would tell us stories about this place! She was a nurse there for a short time , she told us she quit because all the screams she would hear at night during her shift
Liquodsilk
Tue 05-24-2011
My aunt was dememed mentally insane after a run in with drugs in high school (she got the mental illness form her father). My grandmother put her in an asylum and after awhile OKed her to recieve EST. She isn't institutionalized anymore and lives a near normal life, complete with a job and a spoiled cat ^^. She does make the most delusious cookies though.
Azrael
Fri 07-22-2011
I hate when the give Haldol to calm someone..
I know what is it.. and it very hard on our body ..
kym
Wed 08-17-2011

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